Hydroxyl functional surface coating

ABSTRACT

Compositions and methods of preparing functional thin films or surface coatings with low non-specific binding are described. The thin films contain specified functional groups and non-specific binding repellant components. The thin films are either covalently bound to or passively adsorbed to various solid substrates. The specified functional group provides specified activity for the thin film modified solid surfaces and non-specific binding repellant components significantly reduce the non-specific binding to the thin film modified solid surfaces. Non-specific binding repellant components do not affect specified functional group&#39;s activity in the thin films. In these methods, specified functional groups are anchored to the solid substrates through a spacer. Surface coatings are also described having both non-specific protein binding properties combined with functional groups for specific binding activity thereby providing surface coating that specifically recognize target proteins but limit binding to non-specific protein.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/718,880, filed Nov. 21, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,067,194, and entitled FUNCTIONAL SURFACE COATING, which application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/180,199, filed Jun. 25, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,844,028, issued Jan. 18, 2005, and entitled FUNCTIONAL SURFACE COATINGS, which claimed benefit under 35 U.S.C.§ 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 60/301,223, filed Jun. 26, 2001, and entitled FUNCTIONAL SURFACE COATINGS WITH LOW NON-SPECIFIC BINDING PROPERTIES, all of which are incorporated by reference. This application also claims benefit under 35 U.S.C.§ 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/536,596, filed Jan. 15, 2004, and entitled FUNCTIONAL SURFACE COATINGS II, U.S Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/541,885, filed Jan. 31, 2004, and entitled FUNCTIONAL SURFACE COATINGS III, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/561,240, filed Apr. 10, 2004, having Express Mail Label EU 985 113 345 US and entitled COMPOSITION AND METHOD OF FORMING A FUNCTIONAL COATING, all of which are also incorporated in their entirety by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the field of surface coatings that impart desirable chemical, physical, and biological properties to a substrate material. In particular, this invention relates to surface chemistries designed to inhibit non-specific adsorption or binding of molecules, particles, or cells to a surface while also providing a means for immobilizing or entrapping specific molecules, capture agents, drugs, particles, or cells to or within that same surface. This invention further relates to coatings for application to a variety of chemically distinct substrate materials.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Controlling the interactions between naturally derived or synthetic materials and biomolecule-containing fluids is of increasing importance in a variety of fields. For example, biomolecule interactions with a variety of substrate materials, i.e., surfaces, are central to numerous analytical systems, including immunodiagnostics, gene and protein microarrays, and microfluidic “lab-on-a-chip” devices. Analytical techniques such as capillary electrophoresis (CE), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) also intimately depend on biomolecule-surface interactions. Performance of biomedical devices including cardiovascular replacements (e.g., catheters, valves, stents), contact and intraocular lenses, shunts, filters, diaphragms, pumps, membranes, drug delivery devices and surgical components also depend on control of biomolecule-surface interactions. Maritime surfaces, including heat exchange units, ship-board components (e.g., hulls, superstructure), installations (pump derricks), docks, and environmentally exposed instruments also require control of biomolecule deposition (algae, fungus, microbial exudates) on their surfaces.

Of major common concern within these fields is the level of non-specific biomolecule (e.g., protein, organismal, nucleic acid) binding to target and device substrates. In non-sensing or non-diagnostic applications, this concern general focuses on surface-induced biofouling (deposition of biological material that compromises function). This is particularly problematic in biomedical devices and maritime applications. In medical, food, and environmental sensing and diagnostics, specificity, signal-to-noise ratios, and detection limits of a target analyte (e.g., polysaccharides, nucleic acid, drug, peptide or protein), often at limited concentrations in a milieu of non-target biomolecules (e.g., serum proteins), are limited by surface non-specific non-target (e.g., protein) binding on the substrate. Reduction or elimination of this non-specific binding noise will improve device performance, and enhance signal-to-noise ratios, detection sensitivity and specificity of many analytical systems.

Beyond analytical systems, the synthetic material-biological interface is central to the proper function of many biomedical devices. For example, non-specific binding of proteins at medical implant surfaces is believed to be at least partially responsible for triggering the foreign body response, which in turn can lead to device failure or rejection. This biofouling is also blamed for device infection incidence, thrombosis, and sensor deterioration over time in vivo. Alternatively, it has been hypothesized that implant surfaces that interact with target biomolecules in a specific manner can be used to stimulate natural healing, avoiding many adverse reactions from biofouling. In addition, numerous non-analytical and non-medical applications require direct control of surface-biological fluid interactions. Examples include non-fouling paints and anti-microbial coatings for industrial equipment, colloid and mineral handling systems, cooling systems, marine structures, and bioreactors used for production of biological products in vitro using biological components.

Improvements in these important fields all would benefit from development of improved surface chemistries where specific target binding, tethering or entrapment can be controlled versus non-specific deposition of undesired components. A core requirement of these surface chemistries is that the synthetic surfaces show reduced or limited non-specific binding (NSB) to non-targets, biomolecules, particles, or cells. NSB occurs through a variety of basic molecular-level adhesion mechanisms, including all combinations of electrostatic, hydration, hydrophobic, acid-base, dispersive and hydrogen bonding interactions. Soluble proteins, for example, generally ubiquitously and universally adsorb to a surface through combinations of these non-specific interactions, creating an adherent layer of biological material difficult to remove (a critical step in biofouling). Protein NSB often results in protein denaturation (loss of native structure) on surfaces that can prompt a cascade of additional NSB events (further adsorption of other proteins, cells, micro-organisms, etc., to the exposed interior of the denatured protein). This biofouling NSB cascade produces undesired infection, coagulation, inflammatory responses for biomedical implants, reduced signal-noise ratios for diagnostic assays and sensors, corrosion and deterioration for maritime and environmentally exposed structures, turbulence and reduced propulsion efficiency for maritime shipping, and undesired pressure drops and flow properties in capillaries, tubes and microfluidic chambers. Inhibition of protein and biomolecule NSB is thus an important performance feature in the design of improved synthetic materials that contact, function with and operate in biological fluids.

While NSB to surfaces is most often undesirable, specific capture of designated biomolecules, particles, drugs or cells by binding at a target surface is often desirable. Examples include the specific binding of bioactive antibodies on a surface for immunoassay applications, specific binding of nucleic acid primers on a surface for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or genetic assays (microarrays), and specific binding of growth factors or antibiotics to surfaces to promote or hinder cell growth, respectively. The goal of such specific binding to a surface is to bind only one designated type of molecule, particle, or cell, to the target surface and to do so in a manner that preserves the recognition activity and native structure and function of the specifically bound molecule, particle or cell.

Thus, functional surface chemistries are needed that (1) inhibit non-specific binding of unwanted molecules, particles, or cells to a treated surface; (2) inhibit non-specific binding of unwanted molecules, particles, or cells to a treated surface while promoting specific biomolecule, particle, or cell binding, to that same surface; or (3) that inhibit non-specific binding of unwanted molecules, particles, or cells to a treated surface while promoting specific and functionally or biologically active biomolecule, particle, or cell binding, to that same surface.

Several strategies have been employed to create surfaces with these desired low non-specific binding properties. These strategies typically involve selection of coating chemistry or surface functional groups that exhibit low NSB and then fixing them to an underlying substrate. The fixing step may be based on physical adsorption or on direct covalent linkage (chemical coupling). From a performance perspective, the layer must exhibit robust bonding to the underlying support while maintaining low-NSB properties to the environment.

Surface coating strategies based on synthetic polymers have been the focus for development of most non-fouling coating applications. A. S. Hoffman, “Non-Fouling Surface Technologies,” Journal of Biomaterials Science: Polymer Edition 10, no. 10 (1999): 1011-1014; Poly(ethylene glycol): Chemistry and Biological Applications, ACS Symposium Series 680, J. Milton Harris and Samuel Zalipsky, Eds., American Chemical Society, 1997. Hydrophilic, polar, electrically neutral polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) derivatives have received significant attention because of their long-acknowledged abilities to reduce protein NSB from solutions in coated formats. The challenge has been to effectively fix these and other similar water-soluble polymers to useful substrate materials at densities sufficient to impart effective NSB through contiguous coating. One approach has been to physically adsorb hydrophilic-hydrophobic block copolymers to hydrophobic supports. Hydrophobic interactions between the substrate and hydrophobic polymer block are sufficient to attach coating polymer molecules to the substrate while presenting the hydrophilic, low-NSB block to the aqueous surroundings. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,075,400 and 6,093,559. Problems with these physically adsorbed films, however, include reversible polymer desorption, particularly in challenging liquid environments (e.g., high salt, non-neutral pH, elevated temperature, shearing flow conditions, etc.), and the ability to achieve reproducible adsorbed densities effective to limit NSB.

Another approach to creating surfaces with low non-specific binding properties relates to the covalent coupling of low-NSB coating polymers to the target surface. PEG, for example, can be covalently grafted to substrates through reactive end groups introduced to the PEG molecule. U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,329. Azido chemistry and quinone chemistry are two photo-reactive end group examples for such fixation to polymer substrates. A disadvantage of this approach is that it is confined to coating particular types of polymer supports where this coupling chemistry is effective and available. Attachment to interesting inorganic substrates such as glass or metals requires some intermediate substrate attachment layer, which adds to the cost, time consumption, and overall effectiveness of the coating procedure. One particular example of this procedure relies on PEG-silanes used to create coatings on active metal oxide surfaces (glass, silica, titania, alumina and others). In this system, a PEG molecule is derivatized with alkoxysilane or chlorosilane terminal reactive groups. Hydrolysis and chemical condensation of the reactive silanes presumably serve to anchor the PEG molecules to oxide substrates such as glass or silicon oxide with exposed surface silanol groups. Despite their initial promise, PEG-silane surfaces are difficult to reproduce practically. It is believed that the terminal alkyl silane reactive groups hydrolyze in solution and then react with each other in the bulk solution, prior to attachment to the substrate, yields poorly defined films (reactive groups cross-react with each other rather than to anchor the PEG-silane to the surface) allowing for a partial physically adsorbed polymer coating mixed with some fraction of chemical attachment. Control of this for reliable coating and low NSB is difficult.

An alternative to forming a polymer film for blocking non-specific binding on a substrate is to inhibit the non-specific binding to the substrate with a biomolecule-blocking step (masking). The most common practice in this respect is to pre-adsorb substrates with soluble bovine serum albumin (BSA), casein, or serum. These proteins (or proteins in the serum) adsorb strongly to most surfaces from aqueous solution, providing an adsorbed protein layer that minimizes subsequent non-specific binding of other biomolecules. While such protein blocking has proven to be functionally effective, the blocking step is time consuming, labor intensive, and subject to reproducibility problems. In addition, there is a general desire to move away from the use of animal and serum-derived products in surface chemistry applications for safety reasons.

Thus a perceived improvement in the art is a solid-phase surface coating capable of consistently strong, direct and effective attachment to a variety of substrate materials. The surface should reliably exhibit low non-specific binding properties and should be easy to use (i.e., should require no blocking steps). Ideally, the surface chemistry should also provide a means for immobilizing chemically reactive coupler or functional groups on the surface, which in turn exhibit strong specific attachment properties for desired target immobilization onto surfaces. Against this backdrop of technical challenges and current limitations in the field, the present invention has been developed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention are directed at novel surface chemistries and methods of preparing functional solid-phase coatings and surfaces with improved properties both limiting NSB and enabling specific binding. The present invention provides for robust coating bonding over various substrates, including oxide, metal, composite, ceramic, and polymer substrates while simultaneously imparting surface properties that substantially inhibit non-specific binding of solutes from external milieu.

Without wishing to be bound to a particular theory, it is considered that the interaction between the various components of the surface chemistry, described in more detail below, provide the strengths and benefits of a novel surface coating with robust attachment to a variety of chemically distinct solid phase substrates. The chemistry of the coating substantially reduces dependence upon a single attachment mechanism (i.e., silane coupling, physical adsorption, photoreaction, chemical attachment, etc.). Instead, the multifunctional nature of the coating chemistry provides multiple likely attachment mechanisms, including covalent attachment to oxide, ceramic and polymer substrates, crosslinking within the coating, and adsorption via hydrophobic interactions, acid-base chemistry, hydrogen bonding, etc., which act in combination or synergistically to stabilize the coating on the substrate and reliably present the desired surface properties. Importantly, chemical cross-linking within the applied coating itself is believed to augment the coating cohesive character, coating-substrate interactions, and add to the robustness of substrate attachment.

The present invention promotes formation of a functional surface coating. The term “functional” is used herein to describe the ability to perform a specific chemical or analytical task. For example, one class of functional surfaces can provide specific affinity binding or ligand-receptor binding capabilities with designated solutes. For example, a surface can be created that presents biotin groups consistently at the surface. Biotin groups exhibit a highly specific, high affinity binding interaction with streptavidin protein molecules and their mutants. The functional surface in this example, therefore, is a biotinylated, low background NSB coating where function is defined by the ability to specifically bind streptavidin.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the functional surfaces are designed to inhibit all molecular binding interactions to the coating. In this case, the specific functional task is to be interfacially inert. A manifestation of such “inert” function could be a surface that presents effective densities of methoxy-capped ethylene oxide oligomers or polymers. Such surface groups generally do not form covalent linkages, generally do not show affinity binding properties to proteins, cells, or particles, and in general resist adsorption of biomolecules and other soluble species. In the context of the present invention, these inert groups are incorporated directly into the underlying low-background NSB coating invention.

The present invention embodies a coating architecture comprising designated functional surface groups (e.g., methoxy-PEG or biotin) integrated with a cross-linked, low-NSB coatable matrix. The surface functional groups are covalently coupled to the coating matrix through spacer molecules selected to provide conformational flexibility and to be inert to non-specific adsorption. The low-NSB matrix comprises these spacers and other so-called matrix-forming molecules that have been cross-linked into the coatable film. Exemplary matrix-forming molecules include polysaccharides (dextran), ethylene oxide-containing oligomers (linear, block, dendritic or star polymer forms), block co-polymers (Poloxamer®, Pluronics®), and non-ionic surfactants (Tween®, Triton®). The coating architecture is believed to rely on a combination of both physical and chemical cross-linking mechanisms. In addition to physical entanglement of large molecules in the matrix, hetero- or bi-functional, reactive cross-linker molecules may also be included and chemically activated in the coatings. Covalent cross-linking is believed to occur both within the coating matrix and to the substrate. An advantage of using hetero- and bi-functional cross-linkers in this invention is that the coating can be effectively applied and cross-linked to a variety of chemically distinct substrate materials with or without specific surface attachment. The coating described in this invention provides robust attachment both within itself and also to various substrates.

The present invention provides methods of preparing a functional surface coating using the components with the described functions. The methods include providing a substrate with an effective amount of an active component, providing an effective amount of a cross-linking component and providing an effective amount of a matrix-forming component. The active component, the cross-linking component and the matrix-forming component are incorporated onto the substrate, and integrated with each other to create the stable, robust functional surface improvement.

The present invention also provides a functional surface for performance of immuno, genetic, microbial, cellular, particulate and other biochemical or target analyte binding assays. Thus, a non-specific binding matrix is attached to a substrate and an active component is integrated into the non-specific binding matrix to impart these coating selectivities for various assay formats.

In addition, embodiments of the present invention provide functionally inert surface coatings for medical implant devices for effectively limiting host rejection of the medical implant device through attached ligands, incorporated drugs, and reduced NSB responsible for biofouling of such devices in- or ex-vivo.

The present invention also provides for “hydroxyl functional surfaces.” For purposes of this invention, the terms “hydroxyl functional surface” and “hydroxyl functional coating” refer to surface coatings, formulations, and articles comprising hydroxyl (—OH) moieties within the coating matrix. Hydroxyl groups are derivatizable functional groups that provide a means for attachment of specific molecules, capture agents, drugs, particles, or cells to the surface. The hydroxyl functional surfaces described herein is an embodiment of the general functional surface coatings of the invention, which inhibit non-specific binding while providing a means for specific attachment of target species to a surface.

In another embodiment, the invention provides methods for coating a substrate with an effective amount of an active component comprising hydroxyl functional groups, providing an effective amount of a cross-linking component and providing an effective amount of a matrix-forming component to form functional coating. The invention further describes methods for forming said active component comprising hydroxyl functional groups. The invention includes hydroxyl functional surface articles such as coated substrates comprising hydroxyl functional groups.

The invention also provides methods for converting functional coatings comprising an active component, cross-linking component, and matrix-forming component into hydroxyl functional coatings using chemical modifying agents.

The invention further discloses methods in which hydroxyl containing polymers, macromolecules, sugars, or biomolecules are incorporated into the coating matrix, thereby creating a hydroxyl functional surface. Additionally methods are described for performing polymerization reactions on the surface, creating, for example, oligo peptide surfaces such as polyserine that provide a high concentration of hydroxyl functional groups.

These and various other features as well as advantages which characterize the invention will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the appended claims. Features of the hydroxyl functional surface invention will also be apparent from reading the detailed description of preferred embodiments and a review of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic depiction of a functional surface, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The coatable embodiment comprising an active component, a cross-linking component, and a matrix-forming component are schematically depicted to represent their function within the integrated coating on the substrate. Note that a schematic representation of the components comprising the present invention is shown at top, a cross-sectional representation of possible coating architecture is shown in the middle, and a three-dimensional representation of possible coating architecture is shown at bottom.

FIG. 2 illustrates the non-specific binding of protein on biotin functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on SiO₂/Si wafers, compared to BSA-blocked SiO₂/Si wafers.

FIG. 3 illustrates the non-specific binding of protein on thiol-reactive functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on SiO₂/Si wafers, relative to BSA-blocked and bare SiO₂/Si wafers.

FIG. 4 illustrates the non-specific binding of protein on BSA-blocked substrates and functional surfaces according to one embodiment of the present invention on various plastic substrates.

FIG. 5 illustrates the non-specific binding of protein on a BSA-blocked substrate and functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on a metal substrate, in particular a gold substrate.

FIG. 6 illustrates the non-specific binding of protein on functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on glass substrate, BSA-blocked glass, and bare glass substrate.

FIG. 7 illustrates the non-specific binding of fibrinogen on bare glass, BSA-blocked glass, and functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates the specific binding of streptavidin on biotin functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates the specific binding of biotinylated horseradish peroxidase to streptavidin functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on glass substrates.

FIG. 10 illustrates the specific binding of thiolated streptavidin to thiol-reactive functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on plastic substrates. Each concentration was run in triplicate and error bars represent one standard deviation in the set.

FIG. 11 illustrates the specific binding of streptavidin to amine-reactive functional surfaces in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on primed glass substrates. Each concentration was run in triplicate and error bars represent one standard deviation.

FIG. 12 illustrates the specific binding of biotinylated antibody to a streptavidin functional surface in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention on glass substrate.

FIGS. 13( a) and (b) illustrate the improved assay sensitivity for staphylococcal enterotoxin B for a functional surface according to one embodiment of the present invention. Note that FIG. 13( a) shows optical density at 450 nm and FIG. 13( b) shows membrane thickness.

FIGS. 14( a), (b) and (c) illustrate the use of one embodiment of the present invention in an oligonucleotide microarray application, and specifically illustrates the use of oligonucleotides with amine-reactive functional surfaces in comparison to state-of-the-art commercial polymer and silane chemistries. FIG. 14( a) shows fluorescence detection of Cy 5 Streptavidin bound to 3′ biotin labeled oligonucleotide. Signal intensities are reported in relative fluorescence units. Data were obtained from three representative runs and error bars represent one standard deviation. FIG. 14( b) shows fluorescence background determination where noise levels are reported in relative fluorescence units. Data obtained from one slide and error bars represent one standard deviation. FIG. 14( c) shows the resulting signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) for the coating chemistry compared to the polymer and silane slide chemistries. One slide represented per data points.

FIG. 15 illustrates the use of one embodiment of the present invention in a protein microarray application, specifically illustrating the use of streptavidin functional surfaces for selective capture of biotinylated antibodies on glass substrate.

FIG. 16 illustrates the non-specific binding of various coated surfaces demonstrating synergistic effects of the functional surface according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 17( a) and (b) illustrates the use of different matrix-forming components in several embodiments of the present invention that show low non-specific protein binding and high specific protein attachment.

FIGS. 18( a) and (b) illustrates the inhibition of fibroblast cell proliferation after three days of culture on a coated surface embodiment of the present invention (a) relative to a tissue culture polystyrene control (b).

FIGS. 19( a) and 19(b) illustrate coating uniformity and qualitative hydroxyl density. (a) provides an intrinsic fluorescence scan (Tecan LS-400, 488 nm laser at 100% power, PMT=200) of a glass slide coated by the method presented in Example XVIII. The surface plot demonstrates the uniformity of the film, (b) provides results of the FITC staining experiment for assessing hydroxyl density described in Example XVIII. Results for the coatings described in Example XVIII and XX are presented. Both show strong staining signal relative to a bare glass control. The bare glass slide has fluorescence intensity<1000 (data not shown).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The features and other details of the preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described. It is to be understood that the particular embodiments of the invention are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principle features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.

The present invention provides methods and compositions for the preparation of multi-component, multi-functional thin film coatings 100 applied to and stabilized upon a variety of substrates 102 (see FIG. 1). These coatings 100 substantially inhibit non-specific binding or adsorption of non-target proteins, e.g., fibrinogen, undesired enzymes and antibodies, undesired nucleic acids, polysaccharides, particulate solutes, microbes, cells, colloids, and the like (collectively termed non-target analytes), to the coated substrate. The present invention also describes such surfaces stabilized upon a variety of substrates 102 that provide for very low non-specific binding and, if desired, high specific binding and increased assay selectivity and sensitivity.

A diagrammatic depiction of a multi-component, multi-functional surface coating 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates the components of the method and apparatus of the present invention and their believed interactions. As shown in FIG. 1, a substrate 102 is provided with a low non-specific binding matrix 104 affixed upon the substrate 102 and an active component 106 physically entangled and covalently bound within the applied non-specific binding matrix 104. The methods, coatings, compositions, use and kits, according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, are described in more detail below.

Methods of the present invention are directed to the preparation of functional surfaces 100 capable of either or both specific binding and reduced non-specific binding to a target substrate 102. The coating method includes providing effective amounts of an active component, a cross-linking component 108, and a matrix-forming component 104. These three general components are incorporated onto the substrate, thereby creating and comprising the functional surface coating 100 and imparting the properties described by the invention.

The term “functional surface” 100 is used herein to describe a surface that employs specific chemical groups to selectively bind desired target molecules, particles, cells, and the like (collectively called target analytes), from external milieu, and/or to collectively reject undesired molecules, particles, cells, and the like (collectively called non-target analytes), from the surface. By this definition, one class of functional surfaces 100 provides specific binding capabilities through the incorporation of specific functional groups 110 at the surface. An example is a biotinylated surface that exhibits high avidin binding activity (typically in the range of 300 to 500 ng/cm² of avidin) and low NSB of other biologics, particulates, and solutes (typically in the range of 0.01 to 50 ng/cm²). The term “functional surface” is also used herein to describe chemical groups or surface compositions that exhibit inherently low protein or particulate binding or adsorption in the range specified (typically around 0.01 to 50 ng/cm²). Thus, the “function” in this class of surfaces is to be substantially inert to protein, cell, microbe and particulate adsorption. An example of such inert functionality is a surface that presents methoxy-capped ethylene oxide oligomers or polymers. These inert surface groups 112 generally do not form covalent linkages, generally do not show affinity binding properties, and in general tend to resist adsorption of biomolecules, particulates, cells, microbes, and other soluble species (non-target analytes). J. Milton Harris, supra.

For the purposes of this application, “effective amount” is defined as an amount of a specified coating component that, when combined with the other coating components, yields a coating matrix that meets specified performance standards for the desired application (e.g., assay or implant coating). These performance standards are defined for both “low non-specific binding or adsorption” (“low-NSB”) and “highly selective specific binding,” as described below.

For the purposes of this application, the terms “low non-specific binding,” “low non-specific adsorption,” and “low-NSB” are defined relative to the current method of bovine serum albumin (BSA) blocking, i.e., masking. BSA-blocking is a process in which the soluble serum protein, bovine serum albumin, is physically adsorbed from solution to a substrate material prior to the use of that substrate in a biological fluid setting. This pre-adsorbed BSA layer serves to inhibit additional solute or particulate adsorption on the substrate. The BSA-blocking method represents a practical state-of-the-art process for the inhibition of non-specific binding or adsorption to a variety of substrates, particularly in the context of biochemical assays. Thus, for the purposes of the present invention, a coating formulation that inhibits NSB in a manner similar to or superior to BSA-blocking, without the requirement of a BSA-preadsorption or any equivalent blocking step, is herein considered to be a low-NSB surface.

The “highly selective specific binding” performance standard is also defined in a comparative manner. For the purposes of this application, a surface is considered to be highly selective when the specific binding group incorporated in the surface is able to selectively bind target (analyte) species from a complex milieu, when a similar surface lacking such specific binding groups shows little or no capacity to specifically bind target species (analytes). For example, a biotinylated surface is said to be highly selective relative to its non-biotinylated counterpart when significant, measurable quantities of avidin or streptavidin are bound to the former and not to the latter under the same binding conditions.

A final performance standard is the combination of “no selectivity” and low-NSB. In this case, no binding or adsorption is desired, either specific or non-specific. Again, performance is defined relative to a competing method such as BSA-blocking.

The incorporation or affixing step of the surface coat 100 onto a substrate 102 preferably comprises combining effective amounts of active component 106, a cross-linking component 108 and a matrix-forming component 104 into a coatable mixture. This coatable mixture is applied to the substrate and cured to yield the stable, robust surface. Coating mixtures may also include other non-covalently attached functional groups, for example streptavidin, which becomes entangled within the matrix.

The methods of the present invention preferably include combining the active component, matrix-forming component, and cross-linking component in a carrier solvent or solvent mixture. The range of component concentrations used depends on the particular coating method chosen. Selection of solvent also depends on component chemistry, the coating method and choice of substrate material, with factors such as solvent surface tension, solubility parameter, viscosity, and reactivity with the chosen substrate influencing solvent selection.

Active Component for Use with the Present Invention:

Typically, embodiments of the active component 106 of the present invention include a functional group 110, a spacer group 114 and a binding group 116 (see FIG. 1). Note that where no specific binding is required, an inert functional group 112 can be inserted in place of the functional group 110.

In more detail, the term “active component” is intended to signify a bifunctional reactive molecule that includes at least one reactive group (for example 116) at one end of the molecule and at least one functional group (for example 110 or 112) at either end of the molecule. The distance between the two groups can be varied by varying the length of the spacer group 114 to provide the desired attributes as defined by the final product required by a person skilled in the art. As previously described, the active component 106 preferably includes specific chemical parts representing the functional group, spacer, and binding group. Specific definitions of these terms are provided below. The active component 106 is preferably a combination of these groups; however, it is to be understood that the active component need not necessarily comprise three distinctly separate groups. It is possible that one group can act both as a functional group and a spacer group, for example. It is also possible, for example, that the functional group (for example 110 or 112) and the reactive group 116 have the same chemical structure (e.g., a homo bifunctional active component). The active component need only perform the function described with respect to each group of the active component as discussed below, with minimal parts needed to accomplish these objectives.

The term “functional group,” 110 as used herein, is intended to include those groups that can generally interact with and form an association (both covalent and non-covalent) with target species external to the surface while generally not associating with non-target species. The term “functional group” may also refer to those groups that are essentially inert to binding and adsorption of any or all species in external milieu, referred to as an inert functional group 112.

For surfaces designed for specific binding applications, functional groups 110 include but are not limited to chemically active groups, receptor or ligand groups, and chelators capable of selectively binding desired target species. More specific examples of functional groups 110 include but are not limited to, for example, biotin, N-hydroxy succinimide esters, nitrophenyl esters, carboxylates, vinyls, vinylsulfone, metal chelates, glutathione, streptavidin, nitrenes, acrylate groups, phenylboronic acid, nitrolotriacetic acid (NTA), imidodiacetate (IDA), salicylhydroxamic acid, hydroxyl groups (—OH), amine groups (—NH₂), imine groups (—NHR) scarboxylic acids (—COOH), aldehydes (—CHO), ketones (C═O), esters (—COOR), ethers (—C—O—C), amide groups (—CONH₂), imides (—CONHR), cyanides (—CN), hydrazides (—NHNH₂), succinimides (—ONC₄O₂), maleimide, thiols (—SH), halides (—X), silyl (—SiH), azido groups (—N₃), phenyl groups, sulfonates (SO₃ ⁻), isothiocyanate, isocyanate, epoxides, nitrobenzyls, oxazoline, acid chloride, chloroformate, disulfide pyridyl, azlactone, cyanogen bromide, fluoroarenes, fluorocarbons, disulfides, isocyanides, sulfaamido, sulfate, heparin, peptides, nucleotides, polynucleotides, organic silicon compounds and organic phosphate (phosphoamidite) compounds.

For surfaces on which little or no specific surface binding is desired, inert functional groups 112 include non-reactive chemical groups such as, ethylene glycol oligomers, acrylamides, pyrollidones, poly- and mono-saccharides and polar synthetic polymers.

Choice of the functional group is within the skill of the art, based on known binding parameters of and derivatives of the functional group(s) appropriate for each use. Thus, the active component can be designed to specifically or non-specifically select and associate with chosen target analytes from external milieu.

The term “spacer,” 114 as used herein, is intended to include those moieties that serve to separate the functional group 110 or inert functional group 112 from the binding group 116 of the active component 106. Typically, the length of the spacer group 114 is sufficient when the functional group and binding group can perform their respective functions without physical or chemical interference from each other. The spacer links the functional group to the binding group and also preferably separates the functional group a distance away from the coated solid substrate 102. This spacer 114 increases the accessibility of the functional group 110 to target species and reduces the steric hindrance from or binding interference with the solid substrate 102.

It is preferable that the spacer 114 is one consistent length that provides all functional groups with the same activity; however, this is not required. Example spacers include, but are not limited to, hetero-, bi-functional or multi-functional small molecules or polymers. These molecules can form covalent bonds or stable films upon solid substrates and, at the same time, provide functional groups for specifically binding target species from external milieu. For example, bi-functional, linear, star-shape, and comb-like PEGs (oligomers or polymers), polyethylenimines, polystyrene, polysiloxanes, polyurethanes, proteins, poly(amino acids), polyphosphazenes, telechelic block copolymers (Pluronics™), polyacrylates, polyacrylamides, polymethacrylates, polysaccharides, dendrimers, hyperbranched polymers, macromonomers, and cross-linking or heterobifunctional alkyl-linked coupling reagents are suitable spacers.

The term “binding group,” 116 as used herein, is intended to include those moieties that can bind the active component 106 to the coating matrix 100 and/or to the underlying support 102. The binding group 116 is preferably selected to covalently bind the active component to the coating matrix or to the substrate. The binding group can also react with itself in the form of cross-linking. Examples of the binding group for use in the present invention include, but are not limited to, silanes, methacrylates, disulfides, disilazanes, sulfhydryls, acrylates, carboxylates, activated esters, other active leaving groups, isonitriles, isocyanates. and phosphoamidites, nitrenes, epoxides, hydrosilyl, esters, arenes, azido, amine, nitrile, vinyl groups, alkylphosphonates, and known surface-coupling reactive species known to those skilled in the art of chemical coupling to surfaces.

In a preferred embodiment, the active component 106 is produced by combining an amount of a reactive chemistry carrying the binding group portion, such as an amino-terminated alkyl silane, with a spacer bearing a terminal functional group, such as biotin-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimidyl (NHS-PEG-biotin). This combination results in an active component having a terminal silane available to act as the reactive or binding group, a PEG portion acting as a spacer group, and biotin serving as the functional group. The active component has the general molecular formula X-PEG-Y, where X is the functional group and Y is the binding group. Although a list of possible functional groups is provided above, example preferred functional groups include, but are not limited to biotin, N-hydroxysuccinimide, vinylsulfone, metal ion chelates (e.g., Ni²⁺-NTA), glutathione binding group, amino, aldehyde, epoxy, mercapto, maleimide, heparin, methoxy, and sulfonate. Example preferred binding groups include, but are not limited to silane, azide, acrylate, aldehyde, isocyanate, phosphonate, and epoxy.

The methods of the present invention preferably include forming a 0.001 mol/liter to 0.1 mol/liter solution of active component 106 in a solvent, more preferably 0.005-0.02 mol/liter solution of active component in a solvent, and most preferably 0.01 mol/liter solution of active component in a solvent. As noted above, the active component 106 is preferably a molecule of the form X-PEG-silane, wherein: X is a functional group such as biotin, vinylsulfone, or an N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester; PEG is a polyethyleneglycol polymer, preferably of molecular weight 2000 to 5000 atomic mass units; and silane is a hydrolyzable silane precursor group (e.g., trialkoxy or trichlorosilane).

In a preferred embodiment, the active component 106 is a biotin-PEG-silane molecule formed by reacting biotin-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimide (biotin-PEG-NHS, molecular weight 3400, e.g., Shearwater Corp., OH2Z0F02) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 1:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent. The reaction is preferably carried out at room temperature for two hours. The N-hydroxysuccinimide group on the biotin-PEG-NHS reacts reliably with the terminal amine on the aminosilane to yield the biotin-PEG-silane active component. An example solvent for the active component is N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC, Aldrich 27,055-5).

In another preferred embodiment, two active components 106: biotin-PEG-silane and methoxy-PEG-silane, are combined in the coating mixture. By diluting the biotin functional group in “inert” methoxy groups, increased biotin binding activity of bound streptavidin can be achieved. The first active component is the biotin-PEG-silane, molecular weight 3400 described in the previous paragraph. The second active component is a methoxy-PEG-silane, formed by reacting methoxy-PEG-OCH₂CH₂—CO₂-N-hydroxysuccinimide (methoxy-PEG-NHS), preferably of molecular weight less than 3400, most preferably molecular weight 2000 (e.g., Shearwater Corp., 2M4M0D01), with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 1:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent.

In another preferred embodiment, the active component is a methoxy-PEG-silane, preferably formed by reacting methoxy-PEG-OCH₂CH₂—CO₂-N-hydroxysuccinimide, molecular weight 5000 (e.g., Shearwater Corp., 2M4M0H01) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 1:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent.

In another preferred embodiment, the active component 106 is a vinylsulfone-PEG-silane, preferably formed by reacting vinylsulfone-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimide, molecular weight 3400 (e.g., Shearwater Corp. 2Z5B0F02) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 1:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent.

In another preferred embodiment 106, the active component is an NHS-PEG-silane, preferably formed by reacting a bis-functional N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester of PEG (SPA-PEG-SPA, molecular weight 3400, e.g. Shearwater Corp., 4M4M0F02) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 2:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent. In another preferred embodiment, the active component 106 is a COOH-PEG-silane, preferably formed by reacting COOH-PEG-N-hydroxysuccinimide, molecular weight 3400 (e.g., Shearwater Corp., 0Z2Z0F12) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane ((3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 1:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent.

Cross-Linking Component and Matrix Forming Component for use with the Present Invention:

The “cross-linking component” 108 of the present invention is defined herein as a reactive molecule with multiple reactive moieties that when activated by appropriate stimulus, provides cross-linked stabilization within the film 100 as well as covalent or adsorptive film attachment to or upon various solid substrates 102.

In one embodiment, the cross-linking component 108 includes the alkylsilane and sulfonylazide reactive end groups, which when combined create dual reactive functionalities that upon curing proceed to form spontaneous cross-links both within the coating and to various substrates 102. Exemplary crosslinking groups include molecules that combine groups from the list including: methacrylates, acrylates, epoxides, silanes, perfluorophenyl azides, aryl azides, bis-nitrenes, acyl azides, azidoformates, sulfonyl azides, phosphoryl azides, diazoalkanes, diazoketones, diazoacetates, beta-keto-alpha-diazoacetates, aliphatic azo, diazirines, ketenes, photoactivated ketones, dialkyl peroxidases, diacyl peroxidases, or quinones. As an example, 6-azidosulfonylhexyltriethoxysilane is provided, which includes silane groups able to form covalent bonds with reactive hydroxyl groups present on surfaces of substrates such as a oxidized polymers, metal oxides, silicon wafers, silicates, titanates, aluminates, or glasses. The silane groups can also cross-linked with each other or with other silane groups, forming a three-dimensional cross-linked matrix. The azidosulfonyl group can form covalent bonds with aliphatic and aromatic compounds both on the substrate 102 and/or within the coatable multicomponent matrix 104.

The term “matrix-forming component,” 104 as used herein, is intended to include those molecules known in the art to have physical characteristics of providing low non-specific binding properties towards biological (e.g. proteins, polysaccharides, cells, and bacteria) and non-biological (e.g. particulate, colloidal, ionic, siliceous, and carbonaceous) compounds. Ostuni, E.; Chapman, R. G.; Holmlin, R. E.; Takayama, S.; Whitesides, G. M. Langmuir, 17: 5605-5620 (2001). Such matrix-forming molecules typically include one or more of the following characteristics: such molecules can be polar, hydrophilic, and electrically neutral, are hydrogen bond acceptors, and typically exhibit conformational flexibility.

Examples of the matrix-forming component 104 include, but are not limited to, polyoxyethylene-based surface-active substances, including polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate (PST), polyoxyethylene sorbitol hexaoleate (PSH), polyoxyethylene 6 tridecyl ether, polyoxyethylene 12 tridecyl ether, polyoxyethylene 18 tridecyl ether, Tween® surfactants, Triton® surfactants, and the polyoxyethlene-polyoxypropylene copolymers such as the Pluronic® and Poloxamer® product series (from BASF). Other matrix-forming components include dextrans, linear PEG molecules (MW 500 to 5,000,000), star-shaped PEG molecules, comb-shaped and dendrimeric, hyperbrached PEG molecules, as well as the analogous linear, star, and dendrimer polyamine polymers, and various carbonated, perfluorinated (e.g., DuPont Zonyl® fluorosurfactants) and siliconated (e.g, dimethylsiloxane-ethylene oxide block copolymers) surfactants. Matrix-forming components 104 of biological origin include casein, serum dilutions, bovine serum albumin, glycolipids and lipids, heparin and related glycosaminoglycans, muscin and polysaccharides (dextrans, hyalurons, sepharose, cellulose, agarose, chondroitins, chitosans).

A solution of cross-linking component 108 and matrix-forming component 104 is also formed in a carrier solvent. As noted above, the matrix-forming component 104 is preferably a linear or branched polyoxyethylene-containing surfactant. Most preferably, the matrix-forming component 104 is polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate (PST, e.g., Aldrich 46,639-5). The matrix-forming component is preferably dissolved to provide a 0.01 to 5% (vol/vol) solution in the final coating mixture. More preferably, the matrix-forming component has a concentration of 0.5 to 2% in the final coating mixture. Most preferably, the matrix-forming component 104 concentration is 1% (vol/vol) in the final coating mixture.

As noted above, the cross-linking component 108 is preferably a bi-functional chemically reactive compound, and more preferably a hetero bi-functional molecule with azido functionality on one end of the molecule and alkyl silane functionality on the other end. Most preferably, the cross-linking component 108 is an azidosilane (6-azidosulfonylhexyl-triethoxysilane, 95%; Gelest, e.g., SIA0780.0). The cross-linking component is preferably dissolved to give a 0.001 to 0.5 mol/liter solution, and more preferably, 0.005 to 0.1 mol/liter solution in solvent. Most preferably, the cross-linking component 108 is dissolved to provide a 0.02 mol/liter solution. The preferred solvent for the cross-linking component/matrix-forming component mixture is dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO, e.g., Aldrich 47,230-1), although other solvents are envisioned.

Coating Solutions for use in the Present Invention:

In use, the coating solutions 100 of the present invention are prepared by combining an active component solution of the present invention with the cross-linking component 108/matrix-forming component 104 mixture of the present invention at a variety of different volume ratios. The most preferred ratio is approximately 1:4 volume ratio of active component solution to cross-linking/matrix-forming component solution. The most preferred final component concentrations in the coating solution are: 0.002 mol/liter active component (e.g., biotin-PEG-silane), 0.009 mol/liter matrix forming component (polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate) and 0.0183 reactive component (azidosilane).

Note that the most preferred final concentration depends in part on the coating method to be employed and the desired coating thickness. The most preferred concentrations described above are associated with a spin-coating fabrication operation. However, other active component to cross-linking/matrix-forming ratios and final concentrations are envisioned to be within the scope of the present invention as long as the combinations provide useful coating solutions that exhibit the desired specific/non-specific binding characteristics. Note also that other target proteins or analytes may be included in the combination of active component, cross-linking component, and matrix-forming component. For example, streptavidin may be mixed with biotinylated active components to form a streptavidin-biotin surface, thereby providing a surface coating having streptavidin immobilized within the coating matrix (termed a streptavidin-biotin surface, see Example VIII below).

Substrates for use in the Present Invention:

The term “substrate,” 102 as used herein, is art recognized and is intended to include any surface capable of being coated with the combination of components of the present invention. Suitable substrates 102 include refractive, transparent, adsorptive and opaque solid-phase materials. They include, but are not limited to metals, such as, gold, platinum, silver, copper, iron, aluminum; polymers: such as polystyrene, polysulfone, polyetherimide, polyethersulfone, polysiloxane, polyester, polycarbonate, polyether, polyacrylate, polymethacrylate, cellulose, nitrocellulose, perfluorinated polymers, polyurethane, polyethylene, polyamide, polyolefin, polypropylene, nylon, hydrogels, and related blends and copolymers; non-metals, such as silica, silicon dioxide, titanium oxides, aluminum oxides, iron oxides, carbon, silicon, various silicates and other glasses, for example soda-lime glass, ceramics and sol-gels. Advantageously, the surface chemistry of the present invention secures itself over all these classes of substrates 102 and their derivatives and modifications. Again, it is believed that the cross-linking and other reactions within the matrix-forming component, reactive component and active component facilitate the stability of the non-specific binding matrix upon and over the substrate 102 without unnecessary covalent attachment to the substrate.

Note that some substrates 102 for use in the present invention may require cleaning steps and drying steps, oxidation steps or other procedures known in the art to facilitate the effective uniform coating interaction between the coating solution 100 and the target substrate 102. For example, glass slide substrates are typically “primed” by rinsing in high purity water, soaked in an alkaline glass cleaner, sonicated for a period of approximately 15 minutes in the cleaner, soaked in high purity water and finally blow dry under N₂ gas. Other substrate preparation procedures are discussed in the Examples or would be known to one of skill in the art.

Application of the Coating Solution to a Substrate:

The coating mixture, as described above, is applied to a target substrate 102. Preferably the application of the coating solution to the substrate 102 is accomplished by spin coating, dip coating, spray coating, or any other type of coating or application method known to those of ordinary skill in the art. More preferably, the coating mixture is spin coated onto the substrate. Most preferably, the coating mixture is spin coated onto the substrate by applying 0.5 ml of the coating mixture to a substrate in a spin coater (e.g., Laurell Model WS-200-4NPP/RPM/HSP-8KJVAC) and spinning at 3500 to 5000 rpm for 90 seconds. Note that in certain applications a second, and sometimes third, coat or application of the coating mixture to the substrate is performed. These additional coating applications allow the thickness of the coating mixture layer to vary.

Note that the combination of the above described components provide coatings 100 that exhibit performance superior to the same coatings comprising subsets of the components. As shown in Example XV below, embodiments of the present invention operate optimally when all the above-described components (active component 106, cross-linking agent 108, and matrix forming agent 104) are present in the coating surface 100. However, it is envisioned that embodiments of the present invention may exclude one of the above components and still maintain some level of function, albeit a function (specific and non-specific binding) at a potentially non-optimal manner.

Curing of Surface Coated Substrate Targets:

Once coated, curing, using known methods, stabilizes the coating onto the substrate. Preferably, the curing step is thermal activation in a vacuum oven. More preferably, the curing step includes a room temperature evacuation step in which the pressure within the vacuum oven is pumped down to a pressure of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for a period of 30 minutes, after which the oven is heated to 40° to 140° C., most preferably to 70° C. The total thermal curing step takes approximately one hour in this method. The curing temperature and time depend in part on the physical properties of the substrate material. Hence, shorter or longer curing times may be required dependent on the temperature and physical properties of the substrate 102. The coated surfaces are then allowed to cool to room temperature. This multi-step curing process is beneficial because it provides solvent removal and sufficient reaction time and temperature to form a robust, adherent functional coating 100.

The curing step stabilizes the functional surface invention for use. Note that the curing step can be by thermal activation (discussed above), photo activation, chemical activation or any other type of curing that creates cross-linking within the functional surface as well as bonding to the substrate. Thermal activation includes, for example, heating in an oven, photo activation includes, for example, irradiation with ultraviolet light, and chemical activation includes, for example, submersion in water, chemically facilitating cross-linking. Chemical cross-linking may also proceed without external stimulus, for example through aging processes such as condensation. Any other form of chemical and physical transformation or curing can be used as known by those of ordinary skill in the art.

Example Binding Assays for use with the Present Invention:

In one embodiment of the present invention, a functional surface 100 for performance of a biochemical or bioanalytical binding assay is provided. The functional surface comprises a general base composition tailorable to specific applications by changing appropriate functional group chemistries within the coating base formulation in a cassette-style format readily adaptable to several distinct classes of interfacial properties. The surface coating is engineered with the following components that permit facile, customized, tailoring of the platform chemistry across a number of applications: a non-specific binding matrix affixed upon and/or to the substrate; and an active component affixed to the non-specific binding matrix.

The active component 106 is preferably the same as is described above with respect to the method for producing a functional surface 100. The non-specific binding matrix facilitates adherence of the active component upon and/or to the substrate. Preferably, the non-specific binding matrix has a matrix-forming component and a cross-linking component. The matrix-forming component and the reactive component are identical to those described above with respect to the method for forming a functional, selective-binding surface. Coating adhesion upon and/or to the underlying substrate is believed to be promoted by multiple non-covalent interactions (e.g., physical entanglement, non-covalent binding) between the insoluble cross-linked film matrix and substrate in addition to any covalent linkages directly to the substrate via chemical reaction.

The surface chemistries of the present invention can be utilized in numerous analytical systems, including immunodiagnostics, gene and protein microarrays and microfluidic “lab-on-a-chip” devices. Application of the surface chemistries to these analytical settings are accomplished using the compositions and methods of the present invention in ways known to one of skill in the art. Example analytic assays for use with the present invention include, but not limited to, TMB-microwell assay, which is described in the following Examples, the staphylococcal enterotoxin B sandwich assay, also described in the following Examples, oligonucleotide microarray assays, also described in the following Examples, as well as other like capture assays that quantify the presence of antigens, pathogens, particles, drugs, toxins, and metabolites.

Note that different embodiments of the surface coating 100 of the present invention may be packaged together with a number of surface coating compatible, useful, target assay ingredients to provide kits appropriate for performing analytical assays. For example, kits may include a solution of prepared surface coating, target substrate, for example primed or un-primed glass slides, assay ingredients, for example, labeled antibody, and other helpful tools (pipettes, filters, tubes, etc). Note also that kits may be packaged with the substrate pre-coated with the target surface coating for use in the particular assay of interest.

Further, the surface chemistries of the present invention can be utilized within the medical device implant field to limit or eliminate non-specific binding to the implanted device, examples include coatings to surfaces of existing devices such as catheters, shunts, pumps, filtration membranes, stents, valves, membranes and other devices. Such coatings are commonly used to reduce non-specific adsorption of biological components, cells and microbes.

In another potential embodiment, the surface chemistries of the present invention can be utilized within the medical device implant field to provide coatings that provide active functions. For example, the surface chemistries of the present invention can be used to entrap drugs for controlled release applications. In another example, the surface chemistries of the present invention could be used to tether drugs, therapeutic proteins, antimicrobial compounds, etc. to the surface of a device.

Hydroxyl Functional Surface Coatings

The present invention also provides “hydroxyl functional surfaces.” For the purposes of this invention, the terms “hydroxyl functional surface” and “hydroxyl functional coating” refer to surface coatings, formulations, and articles comprising hydroxyl (—OH) moieties within the coating matrix. Hydroxyl groups are derivatizable functional groups that provide a means for attachment of specific molecules, capture agents, drugs, particles, or cells to the surface. The hydroxyl functional surfaces described herein include the same advantages of other functional surface coatings of the invention, which inhibit non-specific binding while providing a means for specific attachment of target species to a surface. The methods, procedures, and principles described above for the functional surface coatings generally apply to hydroxyl functional surface coatings. Illustrative embodiments of active components are described in detail below. The previous discussion of cross-linking component, matrix-forming component, coating solutions, substrates, application of the coating solution, and curing steps are all relevant to the hydroxyl functional surface coating invention described below.

The “active component” for this embodiment is typically comprised of a functional group, a spacer group, and a reactive group, wherein the “functional group” includes those groups that may be derivatizable upon interaction with other target species. Exemplary derivatizable functional groups listed previously include hydroxyl, amino, carboxyl and thiol groups, as well as modified forms thereof, such as activated or protected forms. The description presented herein discloses surface coating methods and compositions with derivatizable functional groups. This description focuses on, but is not limited to, methods and compositions in which the functional group is hydroxyl (—OH). Illustrative examples are provided of various active components comprising derivatizable functional groups. As described previously, the active component can be a heterofunctional active components that include hydroxyl functionality (see below, Formulas A-C):

Active component molecules shown via formulas (A) to (C), feature an alkoxy silane reactive group on the end of each molecule. The spacer group is a polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer in all cases, with linear and star-shaped 4-arm versions shown (the PEG unit is shown in bold on each molecular structure diagram). The term “star-shape” is used herein to describe a molecular structure in which polymer arms emanate from a central location. The 4-arm PEG shown above is an example a star-shaped polymer. The three molecules shown in formulas (A) to (C) above all feature “terminal” hydroxyl groups. The term “terminal” is used to refer to the end of the polymer backbone, as distinguished from pendant groups that would appear along the length of the polymer backbone. In formulas (A) and (B) above, each polymer spacer arm has a single hydroxyl terminal group. In Formula(C), each polymer spacer arm has three terminal hydroxyl groups. A hydroxyl active component can have one or more terminal hydroxyls.

The active component may also be a homofunctional molecule that includes the same functional groups at both ends of the molecule. Three examples of homofunctional active components are provided below. Active Component shown in Formula (D) is a linear PEG with terminal amines on each end. Active Component shown in Formula (E) is a linear PEG with terminal hydroxyls on each end. Active component shown in formula (F) is a star-shape 4-arm PEG with terminal hydroxyls on each end (shown below as Formulas D-F): H₂NCH₂CH₂CH₂O—(CH₂CH₂O)_(n)—CH₂CH₂CH₂NH₂

-   -   Active Component (D) Amine-PEG-Amine         HOCH₂CH₂CH₂O—(CH₂CH₂O)_(n)—CH₂CH₂CH₂OH     -   Active Component (E) Hydroxy-PEG-Hydroxl

The active component may also comprise a polyfunctional molecule that has a multiplicity of functional groups. An example is polyvinyl alcohol, in which each alcohol moiety is a functional group. Examples of active components with a controlled hydroxyl density include partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate, in which the degree of hydrolysis can be used to affect the density of alcohol groups, or a polyvinyl alcohol in which a fraction of the hydroxyl moieties are reacted so that they no longer act as functional group.

Additionally, the active component may comprise a molecule in which the entire molecule is a functional unit, such as a protein or DNA molecule. In this embodiment, the active component is not covalently attached to the cross-linking or matrix-forming components, but is rather physically entangled within the matrix, is held by a multiplicity of non-covalent bonds, or a combination of physical entanglement and non-covalent bonding (Klempner et al 1990). Examples of active components that become entangled within the matrix include biopolymers like proteins and oligopeptides, such as strepavidin, polyproline, albumin, collagen or antibodies, carbohydrates, such as cellulose, dextran or starches, nucleic acids, such as single and double stranded DNA, and other synthetic polymers, e.g. poly-vinyl alcohol, fully or partially hydrolyzed poly-vinyl acetate, non-hydrolyzed poly-vinyl acetate, hydroxy stryrene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethyleneimine, carbon nanotubes. Entangled or entrapped active components could also include particles, including, but not limited to bacteria, fixed cells, polymer beads, metallic beads or fibers, ceramic beads or fibers, or glass beads or fibers).

The functional group may be activated using photodeprotection, wherein said functional group is protected by a protecting group. Examples of photo sensitive protecting groups include, but are not limited those groups having the formula Ar—C(R₁)(R₂)—O—C(O)—, wherein Ar is an optionally substituted fused polycyclic aryl or a vinylogous derivative thereof; R₁ and R₂ are H, optionally substituted alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl or heteroaromatic, or a vinylogous derivative of the foregoing; and the functional group is a chemical fragment or the surface linked to Ar—C(R₁)(R₂)—O—C(O)— via a heteroatom.

Crosslinking density can be optimized to modify the degree of coating entanglement of the non-covalently incorporated materials. For example, multi-functional silanes, such as poly functional silane components, can be used to adjust crosslinking density as desired.

One potential benefit of the entanglement approach is that the chemistry of the active component need not be modified, or the process of coating fabrication need not be modified, so as to require the covalent attachment of the active component, in some cases significantly reducing the cost of the coating components and/or simplifying the manufacturing process.

The present invention also includes methods for the conversion of functional groups after applying to the substrate and curing of the functional coating through the use of “modifying agents.” The term “modifying agent” is used to describe a molecule with one chemical group that reacts or binds with a functional group of the coating, and an additional chemical group or groups that becomes the new functional groups of the coating. For example, a functional coating incorporating N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) activity can be converted to a hydroxyl functional coating by reaction with a heterobifunctional modifying agent that contains both amine and hydroxyl moieties. Ethanolamine (H₂NCH₂CH₂OH) is an example of a modifying group that will convert a amine-reactive NHS surface coating to a hydroxyl surface coating; the terminal amine of the ethonolamine molecule covalently reacts with NHS groups in the coating, converting each to a hydroxyl end group. Similarly, a functional coating incorporating thiol-reactivity (e.g., maleimide or vinylsulfone functional groups) can be converted to a hydroxyl surface using a modifying agent containing both thiol and hydroxyl groups, such as 2-hydroxy-1-ethanethiol.

The use of heterofunctional modifying agents, in general, is established in the art. For example, the cross-linking reagents in the Pierce catalog (www.piercenet.com) serve as examples of molecules that could serve as modifying agents. Alternatively, many sugars (and or oligo- or polysaccharides) comprise aldehyde groups that can be reacted with aldehyde-reactive surface coatings (e.g., hydrazide-activated polymers), thereby creating a surface with a large number of hydroxyl moieties. More specific examples of chemical groups of a modifying agent include, but are not limited to, for example, biotin, N-hydroxy succinimide esters, nitrophenyl esters, carboxylates, vinyls, vinylsulfone, metal chelates, glutathione, streptavidin, nitrenes, aldehyde groups, acyl chlorides, phenylboronic acid, salicylhydroxamic acid, hydroxyl groups (—OH), amine groups (—NH₂), imine groups (—NHR) carboxylic acids (—COOH), aldehydes (—CHO), ketones (C═O), esters (—COOR), ethers (—C—O—C), amide groups (—CONH₂), imides (—CONHR), cyanides (—CN), hydrazides (—NHNH₂), succinimides (—ONC₄O₂), maleimide, thiols (—SH), halides (—X), azido groups (—N₃), phenyl groups, sulfonates (SO₄ ⁻), isothiocyante, isocyanate, epoxides, nitrobenzyls, oxazoline, acid chloride, chloroformate, disulfide pyridyl, azlactone, cyanogens bromide, fluoroarenes, fluorocarbons, disulfides, isocyanides, sulfates, heparin, peptides, nucleotides, polynucleotides, organic silicon compounds and organic phosphate compounds as well as modified forms thereof, such as activated or protected forms.

It should be understood that in those cases where a hydroxyl-containing modifying agent group is coupled to an amine-reactive group via a reaction, the reaction can occur either subsequent to the amine-reactive group being attached to the substrate, or prior to the amine-reactive group being attached to the surface. In the preparation of surface embodiments in accordance with the present invention, the three parts of the coating (active component, cross-linking-component and matrix-forming component) are mixed and then coated onto the substrate. The reaction with an amine-containing modifying agent can occur either prior to or subsequent to the coating on the surface. Prior to the coating on the surface, the amine-containing functional group can be mixed either at the same time as the three primary components, or subsequent to their mixing.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the active component is a HO_((X))-PEG-silane where X represents the number of hydroxyl groups at the terminus of the active component. The HO_((X))-PEG-silane is preferably formed by first reacting a bis-functional N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester of PEG (e.g., SPA-PEG-SPA, molecular weight 3400, Shearwater Corp., 4M4M0F02) with an amino-terminated alkoxysilane (e.g., (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine, Gelest, SIT8398.0) at a 2:1 mole ratio in a chosen solvent forming a NHS-PEG-silane. The NHS-PEG-silane component is converted to HO-PEG-silane by a 1:1 molar reaction with ethanolamine. An example of an HO-PEG-silane was shown as Active Component in Formula (A) above. Alternatively, an active component with three terminal hydroxyls ((HO)₃-PEG-silane) can be formed by converting the NHS-PEG-silane in a 1:1 molar reaction with tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (e.g., Trizma Base, Sigma-Aldrich).

An alternative embodiment is to react the NHS moiety with sugars or oligosaccharides that have been modified with amino groups, such compounds comprising aminoglycoside antibiotics, aminoglucose or amino-substituted dextrans. Other polymeric forms that are well suited are dendrimeric polymers, of which dendrimeric polymers from Dendritic NanoTechnologies (Mt. Pleasant, Mis.) are exemplars. While such polymers are often provided as having either amino or hydroxyl bearing surfaces, mixed surfaces can also be formed, with an excess of hydroxyl groups over amine groups.

In another preferred embodiment, the active component comprises a spacer group consisting of a star-shape, multi-arm PEG. Examples of multi-arm active components were presented above as Active Components Formulas (B), (C), and (F). The heterofunctional active components such as those shown in Formulas (B) and (C) are preferably formed by first reacting a 4-arm NHS-PEG (e.g., SunBright PTE-200GS, NOF Corp.) with an aminosilane (e.g., Gelest, SIT8398.0) to yield NHS₍₃₎-PEG-silane as the predominant reaction product. The NHS groups of this molecule are then converted to hydroxyls using ethanolamine to yield a molecule like Active Component Formula (B) or tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane to yield a molecule like Active Component Formula (C).

In another preferred embodiment, the active component is a NHS_((Y))-PEG-silane where Y represents the number of NHS groups present in the active component. The NHS_((Y))-PEG-silane is preferably formed by first reacting a bis-functional amine modified PEG (NH₂-PEG-NH₂) with an amine reactive alkoxysilane, at a 2:1 mole ratio in the chosen solvent forming a NH₂-PEG-silane. The NH₂-PEG-silane component is modified by the addition of a multifunctional N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester. In the case of a tetra-functional NHS ester (e.g., tetrakis-(N-succinimidylcarboxypropyl)pentaerythritol, Prod. No. 12941, Molecular Biosciences, Inc.) a NHS₍₃₎-PEG-silane is realized. The resulting NHS_((Y))-PEG-silane active component may be modified by the addition of a hydroxyl containing molecule also containing a chemical group that covalently reacts with the NHS-PEG-silane group generating the HO_((X))-PEG-silane. Preferably the hydroxyl containing molecule contains a chemical group that will covalently attach to and react with the NHS_((Y))-PEG-silane. Tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane or ethanol amine may be used to convert the NHS-PEG-silane to a HO_((X))-PEG-silane. The number of functional groups can be increased significantly using this coupling scheme. For example, an X of 9 can be obtained with a NHS₍₃₎-PEG-silane and the conversion using tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane or an X of 3 with a NHS₍₃₎-PEG-silane and the conversion using ethanolamine.

In another preferred embodiment, hydroxyl terminated homofunctional active components (e.g., Active Components Formulas (E) and (F) above, commercially available through several vendors including NOF Corp.) are covalently incorporated into the three part coating matrix (active component, cross-linking component, matrix-forming component) by using cross-linking components that covalently react with the polymer backbone. Azidosilane (Gelest SIA 0780) is one example of such a cross-linking component.

It should be noted that the modifications described above that yield coatings with desired functional groups (including, but not limited to, hydroxyl groups) is not limited to coatings containing an active component, a cross-linking component, and a matrix-forming component, but can be performed on virtually any coating that contains chemically reactive moieties. For example, polyacrylamide coatings with amine-reactivity (e.g., Amersham CodeLink) or thiol-reactivity are described in the art. Such coatings can be converted to the above-described beneficial effect using appropriate amine-containing or sulfhydryl-containing molecules or crosslinkers. Another example is the reduction of disulfide containing polymer coatings to create attached thiol moieties that can further be converted to hydroxyl groups using maleimide-, vinylsulfone-, or Acrydite™-containing molecules or crosslinkers. Numerous additional reactive coatings are known in the art and the application of the methods of functional modification described in the present invention can be applied to those coatings, either prior to or subsequent to substrate coating.

It should be further understood that modification of a coating matrix is not limited to a single modification step. Intermediate chemical reaction steps could be employed to achieve the desired functionality, using cross-linking chemistries known to those skilled in the art. In a related approach, it has been established in the art that by iteratively performing a sequence of specifically designed reaction steps, well-defined macromolecules can be synthesized in which each iteration generates a known number of branches and end groups. This approach is used to synthesize dendrimers, hierarchically designed macromolecules with known molecular weight and end group density. This sequential approach could be applied as a surface modification technology, creating generations of branched structures at the surface with a well-defined number of functional groups on branches of known length.

In another embodiment, in situ polymerization can be used instead of adding formed polymers with the appropriate functional groups to the surface. For example, any coating which contains an amine or carboxyl termination (for example, reacting an amine-reactive coating with an amino acid or diaminoethane) can be incubated with EDC (1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide), NHS and an amino acid such as serine or threonine in order to create oligopeptides (e.g. oligoserine or oligothreonine) in situ. It is convenient for these oligopeptides to be between 5 and 20 amino acids in length. However, it should be noted that the oligopeptide can also be generated separately from the coating and then added to an amine-reactive surface subsequently. It should be further noted that by varying the mixture of amino acids, as well as the length of the polymer formed, the density of specific functional groups can be controlled. For example, if hydroxyl functional groups are desired, by varying the ratio of serine and glycine, as well as the length of the polymer, the density of the hydroxyl groups can be specifically varied.

In another embodiment, amino acids are used to create polymers with spaced functional groups. For example, a PEG polymer terminated on both ends with NHS moieties can be reacted with 1,3-di-amino-2-hydroxypropane (shown below, Formula G) to create a PEG polymer with hydroxyl groups separated by a given PEG spacer. These polymerizations can be performed either in solution to generate a polymer that can be subsequently added to a suitable substrate, or the polymerization can be performed in situ on the coating (for example, one with amine reactivity).

It should be further noted that if it is desired to increase the number density of functional groups across the surface, this can be accomplished either by increasing the density of groups within a given thickness of coating, or alternatively, the coating may be made thicker. This is particularly applicable to matrix or other coatings with a large pore size, so that functional groups that are within the coating can still be accessible to reagents and reactions from above the coating. The thickness of the coating can be affected by the viscosity and surface tension of the coating mixture, or by the coating process (e.g. if the coating is spin-coated, then the force of the spin coating can be reduced).

The coatings described above can be applied and affixed to a substrate using the variety of methods known to those skilled in the art, including, but not limited to: spin coating, dip coating, spray coating, curtain coating, and roller coating, as well as methods in which the coating matrix is synthesized on the substrate, such as various in-situ polymerization methods.

For purposes of illustration, but not excluding other coating methods, the coating matrix is applied to the substrate by spin coating and then thermally cured to generate a stable film. The thermal cure step is used to drive crosslinking chemical reactions and to remove residual entrained in the film during the spin coating operation. Spin coating is a well-established technique for applying very thin, very uniform coatings to nominally planar substrates. It is commonly used in the microelectronics industry to produce thin coatings of photoresists, dielectrics, and passivation layers. A literature exists describing the relative contributions of factors such as spin speed, solution viscosity, and solvent evaporation rates (Ohara, Matsumoto et al. 1989; Skrobis, Denton et al. 1990; Sukanek 1991). In most practical applications, and in many of the spin coating studies in the literature, the coating systems are relatively simple in that they are a single polymer or monomer solution carried in a single solvent. The functionalized polymer coatings embodied in the present invention, however, are typically multicomponent systems containing complicating surface-active components. Furthermore, many of the anticipated practical applications of the present invention (e.g., microarray substrates) require film uniformity (chemical and topographical) at the submicron length scale. The present invention includes methods for achieving uniform, multicomponent polymer films by spin coating.

Spin coating can be generally described as consisting of four stages: deposition, spin-up, spin-off, and evaporation. During deposition and spin-up, coating material is spread over the entire surface of the substrate at a thickness significantly larger than the final film thickness. It is critical that the surface energies of the liquid coating material and substrate are such that complete wetting of the surface occurs during spin-up, else fingering occurs resulting incomplete coverage and a non-uniform film. While surface tension of the carrier solvent is a reasonable predictor of substrate wetting, the presence of surface-active solutes in the coating material can alter wetting characteristics. In the present invention, surfactant additives can be used to yield uniform distribution of coating solution over the substrate. In a preferred embodiment, surface active additives such as Tween20® or polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate are used to modify the coating formulation such that uniform films are achieved. The use of surface-active additives to affect coating uniformity during spinning is an aspect of the functional coating methods described herein.

Final film thickness and topography are largely established during the spin-off and evaporation stages, which overlap in time. As discussed in the literature, numerous factors affect film thickness and uniformity during these final stages, including liquid viscosity (which changes with solvent evaporation), system temperature, solvent evaporation, ambient humidity and vapor fluid dynamics. For the polymer systems described in the present invention, all of these parameters are complicated by presence of multiple, macromolecular dissolved components, some of which are surface active. These surface-active components affect not only surface tension but also solvent evaporation rate, which in turn alter film thickness and uniformity. In the present invention, surfactant additives are used in the coating formulations to affect the coating viscosity and evaporation. In a preferred embodiment, surface active additives such as Tween20® or polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate are used to modify the coating formulation such that uniform films are achieved. The use of surface-active additives to affect coating uniformity during spinning is an aspect of the functional coating methods described herein.

In addition, solvent blends can be used to tune evaporation rates and surface tension. Miscible carrier solvents with different physical properties (vapor pressure, surface tension, etc.) can be blended to tune the dynamic evaporation and viscosity effects during spin coating. Furthermore, these solvent blends can be combined with surfactant additives to further tune evaporation and spin properties, and hence coating uniformity.

Methods for coating asymmetric substrates are know to those skilled in the art. These methods typically involve chucks designed to hold the substrate such that it appears as a flat, disk-shaped object, thereby eliminating unusual fluid dynamic effects at corners and along substrate edges. In the present inventions, such chuck designs are combined with the aforementioned surfactant additive and solvent blend methods to give further improvements on coating uniformity.

Having generally described the invention, the same will be more readily understood by reference to the following examples, which are provided by way of illustration and are not intended as limiting.

EXAMPLE I Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Biotinylated Surface Coating Chemistry on a SiO₂/Si Substrate

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of a protein to a treated SiO₂/Si substrate. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, biotinylated, surface coating on a flat SiO₂/Si substrate. Experiments tested the level of non-specific binding to either an untreated SiO₂/Si substrate or to the low NSB, biotinylated, surface-coated SiO₂/Si substrate.

Coating Solution Preparation. An aminosilane solution in organic solvent was prepared in a polypropylene vial by adding 26.5 μl (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine (Gelest) to 10 ml of solvent. Either dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or n,n-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) can be used as the solvent (both from Aldrich). 1.0 ml of this solution was then added to a 40 mg aliquot of biotin-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimidyl (Biotin-PEG-NHS, Shearwater Polymers, Inc.), where PEG is a 3400 molecular weight polyethylene glycol. The NHS group of the Biotin-PEG-NHS reacts with the terminal amine on the amino silane to form a biotin-PEG-silane molecule. The biotin-PEG-silane/DMAC solution will be referred to as solution A.

In a second vial, 70.6 μl of 6-azidosulfonylhexyl-triethoxysilane was added to 10 ml DMSO. 125 μl of matrix forming agent (polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate, PST, Aldrich) was then added to this solution yielding a solution B. Solutions A and B were combined in a 1:4 volume ratio (1 ml solution A added to 4 ml solution B) to give a final coating solution mixture used for spin coating onto target substrates.

Spin-Coating. 5-inch silicon wafers (p- or n-type, single-side polished, test grade wafers) were loaded in a spin coater (Laurell Technologies Corp.) and spun at 5000 rpm. The coating solution (0.5 ml) was dispensed onto the spinning wafer, and the wafer was allowed to spin for 90 seconds.

Coated silicon wafers were placed in a vacuum oven pumped down to a vacuum of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 140° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was for two hours. The wafers were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air.

Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface. The wafer was then diced into square pieces as is well known in the art and used in various assays.

Non-Specific Protein Binding (NSB) Assay. The following assay is illustrative of the non-specific binding levels of a model soluble globular serum protein on the coating solution treated wafer surface. An immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody (160 kDa) was used as the model non-specific binding protein. Specifically, a horseradish peroxidase conjugate of rabbit anti-sheep IgG (KPL Laboratories) was dissolved in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) to provide a series of IgG concentrations, ranging from 0.1 to 10 μg/ml. The sample to be assayed (“test piece”) was first triple-rinsed with high purity water and blown dry with a stream of N₂ gas. 20 μl of varying concentrations of the IgG-PBS solution were placed on test spots and incubated at 37° C. in a 100% (nominal) humidity chamber for 30 minutes. Various IgG test concentrations were used as described below. After incubation, the test spots were again triple rinsed with high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas. 20 μl droplets of a commercial tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) peroxidase substrate (KPL, Inc.) were then added to each test spot. Each test piece was incubated at 37° C. in a 100% (nominal) humidity chamber for 30 minutes.

HRP catalyzes the formation of an insoluble, surface-deposited membrane in this assay, which can be detected calorimetrically or by ellipsometry. As such, the greater the level of NSB of horseradish peroxidase coupled IgG to the test piece, the greater the level of surface-deposited membrane.

Control Experiments: Bare Substrates and BSA Blocking. In addition to the coating solution treated substrates discussed above, two NSB control experiments were also run in parallel: (1) bare SiO₂/Si wafer substrates; and (2) SiO₂/Si wafers blocked with bovine serum albumin (BSA). BSA-blocking is currently the most widely used technique for inhibiting non-specific protein binding on bioassay surfaces. Briefly, an untreated piece of silicon wafer was triple-rinsed in high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas. 40 μl droplets of a 1% BSA solution in PBS were then placed on each 6 mm test spot. The droplet covered the entire test spot, which was then incubated for 1 hour at 37° C. and 100% (nominal) relative humidity. The BSA solution was then rinsed off with high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas, and the NSB assay described above was performed on the BSA-blocked SiO₂/Si substrate.

The data in FIG. 2 illustrates that coated or treated SiO₂/Si substrates of the present Example showed little or no detectable IgG non-specific binding at any of the tested concentrations (solid bars). In contrast, BSA-blocked wafers showed a much greater level of IgG NSB (open bars). Note the large error bars on the BSA-blocked surface data, indicating the IgG NSB variability commonly encountered with this blocking technique. NSB was very high on the bare SiO₂/Si wafers, and increased off-scale for the 1 and 10 μg/ml IgG protein loading (data not shown).

This data supports a conclusion that biotin functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting or eliminating NSB of proteins to SiO₂/Si substrates. In contrast, bare SiO₂/Si, and to a lesser extent BSA-blocked SiO₂/Si substrates, showed a greater level of non-specific protein binding, illustrating again the effective utility of the present invention.

EXAMPLE II Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Thiol-Reactive Surface Coating Chemistry on SiO₂/Si Substrates

The following example illustrates the utility of another embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of a protein to a treated SiO₂/Si substrate. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coating on a SiO₂/Si substrate. Experiments were performed to test the level of non-specific binding to either an untreated SiO₂/Si substrate or to the low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coated SiO₂/Si substrate.

Coating Solution Preparation. The coating solution was prepared as essentially described in Example I, with the exception that the Biotin-PEG-NHS was replaced with vinylsulfone-PEG-NHS (Shearwater). Spin coating was also performed as essentially described in Example I.

The spin coated wafers were placed in a vacuum oven pumped down to a vacuum of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 70° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was for four hours. The wafers were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air.

Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface. The wafer was then diced and used in various binding assays.

Non-Specific Protein Binding (NSB) Assay. Non-specific protein binding was assessed using a soluble TMB-microwell assay. Briefly, as described in Example 1, each test piece was rinsed with high purity water, dried, and incubated with a solution of horseradish peroxidase conjugate of rabbit anti-sheep IgG. Note that the PBS solution in this Example included 0.1% Tween20 surfactant. After protein incubation and rinsing, 20 μl droplets of a commercial, tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) soluble peroxidase substrate solution were added to each test spot. 20 μl of stop solution was added to each TMB droplet after 30 minutes incubation at 37° C. and 100% (nominal) relative humidity. The stop solution stops the enzymatic reaction and locks in the color change in the droplet. Droplets were combined using a micropipet and 80 μl samples were transferred from the test piece to a microtiter plate. A plate reader monitoring optical density at 450 nm was used to quantify the extent of the peroxidase reaction, which is directly related to the quantity of non-specifically bound IgG-HRP to each test piece.

Control Experiments: Bare Substrates and BSA Blocking. In addition to the coating solution treated substrates discussed above, two NSB control experiments were also run in parallel: (1) bare SiO₂/Si wafer substrates; and (2) SiO₂/Si wafers blocked with bovine serum albumin (BSA). As discussed in Example I, BSA-blocking is currently the most widely used technique for inhibiting non-specific protein binding on bioassay surfaces. The BSA-blocking protocol was essentially as described in Example I. The test piece was triple-rinsed in high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas. 40 μl droplets of a 1% BSA solution in PBS were then placed on each 6 mm test spot. The droplet covered the entire test spot, which was then incubated for 1 hour at room temperature and 100% (nominal) relative humidity. The BSA solution was then rinsed off with high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas.

NSB Results: The data in FIG. 3 illustrates that coated or treated SiO₂/Si substrates of the present Example showed little or no detectable IgG binding at any of the tested IgG concentrations (solid bars). In contrast, BSA-blocked wafers showed a much greater level of IgG NSB (cross-hatched bars). Note the large error bars on the BSA-blocked surface data, indicating the IgG NSB variability commonly encountered with this blocking technique. NSB was very high on the bare SiO₂/Si wafers (open bars), and increased off-scale for the 1 and 10 μg/ml IgG protein loading (data not shown).

This data supports a conclusion that thiol-reactive functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting or eliminating NSB of proteins to SiO₂/Si substrates. In contrast, bare SiO₂/Si, and to a lesser extent BSA-blocked SiO₂/Si substrates, showed a greater level of non-specific protein binding, illustrating again the effective utility of the present invention.

EXAMPLE III Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Biotinylated Surface Coating Chemistry on Plastic (Polymeric) Substrates

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of a protein to a plastic (polymeric) substrate. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, biotinylated, surface coating on the plastic substrate, e.g., polystyrene, polysulfone, polyetherimide, and polyethersulfone. Experiments were performed to test the level of non-specific binding to either an untreated plastic substrate or to the low NSB, biotinylated, surface coated plastic substrate.

Polystyrene (PS). The polystyrene substrates consisted of 3-inch hydrophobic disks approximately 2 mm thick. The disks were cut from bacteriological grade polystyrene Petri dishes (VWR). The coating solution preparation was identical to that described in Example I. Prior to coating the polystyrene Petri dishes with the coating solution, an oxidation step was performed on the hydrophobic polystyrene surface. Oxidation of the surface was accomplished by submerging the disk in concentrated sulfiric acid (95% H₂SO₄, Mallinkrodt) for two minutes. The disks were then rinsed extensively with high purity water and blown dry with N₂ gas. The disk was mounted in the spin coater and spun at 5000 rpm. The coating solution (0.5 ml) was dispensed onto the spinning disk and was allowed to spin for 90 seconds. At that point another 0.5 ml of the coating solution was dispensed and spun for 90 seconds. The PS surface thus received two coats of coating solution during the spinning process.

The coated PS disk was then placed in a vacuum oven that was evacuated to 150 mm Hg (absolute) at room temperature for 30 minutes. After the 30-minute pump down, the oven was turned on and the samples were heated to 90° C. under vacuum. The total time for thermal treatment (heat ramp and hold) was four hours. Each sample was then allowed to cool to room temperature under ambient atmosphere. After cooling, 6 mm test spots were defined on the surface by stamping with a silicone adhesive border pattern.

Polysulfone (PSU), polyetherimide (PEI), and polyethersulfone (PES). These substrates consisted of 2-inch square coupons cut from 0.02-inch thick commercial film stock. The coupons were cleaned by sonicating for 15 minutes in a non-ionic detergent (Triton X-100) bath. After extensive high purity water rinsing, the coupons were sonicated for another 15 minutes in a 50:50 ethanol:water solution, followed by a water rinse and N₂ gas blow dry.

The coating solution preparation was essentially identical to that described in Example I. The coupons were mounted in the spin coater and spun at 5000 rpm. 0.3 ml of the coating solution was dispensed on the coupons and spun for 90 seconds. The coupons were then placed in a vacuum oven that was pumped down to a vacuum of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 140° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was for two hours. The coupons were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping a silicone glue on the surface.

Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Assay. Non-specific protein binding was assessed using a soluble TMB-microwell assay. First, coated PS, PSU, PEI or PES surfaces were rinsed and incubated with the horseradish peroxidase conjugate of rabbit anti-sheep IgG (described in Example I), with the exception that the phosphate buffered saline also contained 0.1% Tween20 surfactant. After protein incubation and rinsing, 20 μl droplets of a commercial, tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) soluble peroxidase substrate solution was added to each test spot. 20 μl of stop solution was added to each TMB droplet after 30 minutes incubation at 37° C. and 100% (nominal) relative humidity. The stop solution stops the enzymatic reaction and locks in the color change in the droplet. Droplets were combined using a micropipet and 80 μl samples were transferred from the test piece to a microtiter plate. A plate reader monitoring optical density at 450 nm was used to quantify the extent of the peroxidase reaction, which is directly related to the quantity of non-specifically bound IgG-HRP to each surface.

NSB Results. FIG. 4 provides representative non-specific protein (IgG) binding results. The data presented compare the performance of our surface coating (solid bars) relative to traditional bovine serum albumin (BSA) blocking (open bars). The data correspond to incubation in 10 μg/ml IgG for each of the plastic substrate (PS, PSU, PEI, PES), and show that our surface coating is more effective in inhibiting NSB than BSA-blocking on these widely used plastic substrates.

EXAMPLE IV Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Biotinylated Surface Coating Chemistry on Metal/Metal Oxide Substrates

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of a protein to a metal/meal oxide substrate. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, biotinylated, surface coating on the metal/metal oxide substrate. Experiments were performed to test the level of non-specific binding to either a BSA blocked metal/metal oxide substrate or to the low NSB, biotinylated, surface coated metal/metal oxide substrate.

The metal substrate consisted of a 30 nm gold film vapor deposited onto a 5-inch silicon wafer. A ˜5 nm chromium adhesion interlayer was used between the gold and silicon oxide. The coating solution preparation was identical to that described in Example I. The gold-coated wafer was mounted in the spin coater and spun at 5000 rpm. 0.5 ml of the coating solution was dispensed onto the wafer that was spun for 90 seconds. A second application of 0.5 ml coating solution was dispensed onto wafer and spun for another 90 seconds. As such, the metal/metal oxide substrate surface received two coats of coating solution during the spinning process.

The coated wafer was then placed in a vacuum oven that was pumped down to a vacuum of 150 nm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 140° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was for two hours. The wafers were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping silicone adhesive border pattern on the surface. Non-specific binding of protein was assessed using the soluble colorimetric TMB method as described in Example II.

NSB Results: FIG. 5 provides representative non-specific protein (IgG) binding results. The data presented compare the performance of our surface coating relative to traditional bovine serum albumin (BSA) blocking. The data shows that the coated surface (solid bars) is superior to the traditional BSA-blocking approach (open bars) at an IgG protein solution load of 10 μg/ml. At lower protein concentrations, both surfaces are effective at inhibiting NSB.

This data supports a conclusion that biotinylated reactive functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting or eliminating NSB of proteins to metal/metal oxide substrates. In contrast, BSA-blocked metal/metal oxide substrates, at 10 μg/ml or higher concentration, showed a greater level of non-specific protein binding, illustrating again the effective utility of the present invention.

EXAMPLE V Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) Thiol-Reactive Surface Coating Chemistry on Glass Microscope Slides

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of a protein to a glass microscope slide. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coating on the glass slide substrate. Experiments were performed to test the level of non-specific binding to either a bare glass slide, a BSA blocked glass slide or to the low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coated glass slide.

Substrates (glass slides) used in this particular example were polished 25×75 mm microscope slides obtained from a commercial vendor (TeleChem SuperClean™) and used as received. Note, however, that several glass microscope slide substrates have been successfully used, including plain soda-lime glass slides.

Prior to coating, the slides were cleaned by the following protocol. First the slides were rinsed with high purity (18 MΩ-cm) water. slides were then loaded in a glass staining rack, submerged in a 60° C., 1% Alconox solution (alkaline glass cleaner) and sonicated for 15 minutes. The slides were then rinsed with copious amounts of high purity water and sonicated in high purity water for another 15 minutes. Slides were then allowed to soak in fresh ultrapure water. Finally they were blown dry with N₂ gas. The slides were coated within two hours of cleaning.

Pre-primed glass slides have also been successfully coated. Primer coats include vapor deposited SiO₂ layers and spin-on glass formulations such as Seramic™ (Gelest).

The coating solution was prepared as described in Example II. Spin coating was performed as follows: a glass slide was mounted on the vacuum chuck of the spin coater. 0.5 ml of coating solution was dispensed on the stationary slide. The spinner was then turned on and accelerated to 3500 rpm, where it spun for 90 seconds.

The vacuum and thermal cure processes were identical to those described in Example II. The NSB assay and control experiments were performed as described in Example IV, with the following changes. After the 5 minutes TMB peroxidase substrate incubation, 20 μl of TMB-Stop solution was added to the test spots to stop the colorimetric reaction. Optical density was then read directly with the glass slide mounted on a 96-well plate holder (there was no fluid transfer to a microtitre plate).

Binding Results: Results are presented in FIG. 6. These results show that the coated glass surface (solid bars) shows significantly lower non-specific protein binding than BSA-blocked (cross-hatched bars) and bare glass substrates (open bars).

This data supports a conclusion that thiol-reactive functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting or eliminating NSB of proteins to a glass slide substrate. In contrast, bare glass sides and BSA-blocked glass slides showed a greater level of non-specific protein binding, illustrating again the effective utility of the present invention.

EXAMPLE VI Low Non-Specific Binding (NSB) of Fibrinogen to Coated Surface

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for limiting NSB of fibrinogen to coated surfaces of the present invention. A coating solution was prepared and used to form a low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coating on a SiO₂/Si substrate. Experiments were performed to test the level of non-specific binding of fibrinogen to either a bare substrate, a BSA blocked substrate or to the low NSB, thiol-reactive, surface coated substrate.

Coated surfaces were prepared as described in Example II.

Fibrinogen Non-Specific Protein Binding Assay. Non-specific fibrinogen binding was assessed using a soluble TMB-microwell assay as follows: First, test pieces were rinsed and test wells were incubated for 30 minutes with serial dilutions of human fibrinogen (Sigma) in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). After protein incubation, the substrates were rinsed three times with PBST (PBS with 0.01% Tween20) and one time with clean water and then blown dry. Each test well was then incubated for 30 minutes with a 20 μl droplet of a 1:8000 dilution of peroxidase labeled anti-human fibrinogen (Abcam) in PBST. The slides were rinsed as above and then 20 μl droplets of a commercial, tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) soluble peroxidase substrate solution. The TMB assay and optical density measurements were performed as described in Example IV.

Control Experiments: Bare Substrates and BSA Blocking. In addition to the coated substrates, two NSB control experiments were run in parallel, as essentially described in Example II.

NSB Results: Non-specific binding results are presented in FIG. 7. The coated surfaces (solid bars) show very low non-specific fibrinogen binding relative to the bare (open bars) and BSA-blocked (cross-hatched bars) surfaces.

This data supports a conclusion that thiol-reactive functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting or eliminating NSB of fibrinogen to a target substrate. In contrast, non-treated substrate and BSA-blocked substrate showed a greater level of non-specific fibrinogen binding, illustrating again the effective utility of the present invention, especially in light of fibrinogens relative abundance as a serum protein.

EXAMPLE VII Demonstration of Selective Versus Non-Specific Protein Binding on Coated Surfaces

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for demonstrating selective protein (streptavidin) binding versus non-specific protein binding on biotinylated coatings. The test pieces in this study were film-coated silicon wafers, wherein the biotinylated coating was prepared as described in Example I. Control test pieces were also prepared as previously described except that control surfaces were prepared with non-reactive methoxy-capped PEG molecules instead of biotin. Specifically, these coatings were formed by replacing the biotin-PEG-NHS molecule in Example I with a methoxy-PEG-succinimidyl propionate (mPEG-SPA, MW 5000). Otherwise, all processing steps were identical to those in Example I.

Streptavidin binding to these surfaces was assessed using horseradish peroxidase conjugated streptavidin (SA-HRP, Pierce) and the soluble TMB-Microwell assay described in Example II. Various concentrations of SA-HRP were prepared in phosphate buffered saline with 0.01% Tween20 surfactant. 20 μl drops of SA-HRP solution were incubated on test spots for 30 minutes at 37° C. and 100% (nominal) relative humidity. The test spots were then rinsed with high purity water. The soluble TMB-microwell assay described in Example II was used to assess binding.

Binding Results: FIG. 8 shows representative results. These results show that the biotinylated functional surface (open bars) binds significantly more streptavidin than the methoxy-PEG control surface (“inert” surface) (solid bars). Given the previous non-specific protein binding assay results (see Example I), we conclude that the SA is specifically bound to the biotinylated coating. The small signal observed on the methoxy-capped PEG sample for a SA load of 10 ug/ml is likely the result of a small amount of non-specific streptavidin binding.

This data supports a conclusion that functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at providing selective binding sites on a coated substrate, while inert functional surfaces of the present invention are effective at limiting non-specific binding on a coated surface.

EXAMPLE VIII Demonstration of Biotinylated Molecule Binding to Streptavidin-Biotin Coated Surfaces

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for demonstrating the fabrication of a streptavidin-biotin surface and the subsequent selective binding of a biotinylated molecules to this surface.

Coating Solution Preparation. A first aminosilane solution was prepared in a polypropylene vial by adding 26.5 μl (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine (Gelest) to 10 ml of N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC). 1.0 ml of this solution was then added to a 40 mg aliquot of biotin-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester (Biotin-PEG-NHS, Shearwater Corp.), where PEG is a 3400 molecular weight polyethylene glycol. The NHS group reacts with the terminal amine on the amino silane to form a biotin-PEG-silane molecule. The biotin-PEG-silane/DMAC solution is called solution A. In a second vial, 70.6 μl of 6-azidosulfonylhexyl-triethoxysilane was added to 10 ml DMSO. 125 μl of matrix forming agent (polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate, PST, Aldrich) was then added to this solution, which is called solution B. Solution A and B were then combined in a 1:4 volume ratio (1 ml solution A added to 4 ml solution B) to give a final mixture called the biotin-PEG solution.

A second aminosilane solution was prepared in a polypropylene vial by adding 48.4 μl (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine (Gelest) to 10 ml of N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC). 1.0 ml of this solution was then added to a 40 mg aliquot of methoxy-PEG-succinimidyl propionate (mPEG-SPA, Shearwater Corp.), where PEG is a 2000 molecular weight polyethylene glycol. The NHS group reacts with the terminal amine on the amino silane to form a methoxy-PEG-silane molecule. The methoxy-PEG-silane/DMAC solution is called solution C. Solution C and B (described above) were then combined in a 1:4 volume ratio (1 ml solution A added to 4 ml solution B) to give a final mixture called the methoxy-PEG solution.

The biotin-PEG solution was then combined with the methoxy-PEG solution in a 1:4 volume ratio. This final mixture is used to coat a silicon substrate.

Spin-Coating. Spin-coating and the thermal cure were performed as described in Example I. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface. The wafer was then diced and used in various assays.

Formation of the Streptavidin Layer. Streptavidin (Prozyme, Inc.) was diluted to 100 μg/ml in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). 40 μl droplets were then incubated in sample spots for one hour at room temperate. Several spots on the wafer were incubated with PBS only. These are the “no streptavidin” control spots. After incubation, the wafers were rinse three times with PBS-Tween20 (PBST) and one time with ultrapure water and were then blown dry. This process results in a streptavidin immobilized within the coating matrix.

Specific and Non-Specific Binding Assays. Biotinylated horseradish peroxidase (biotin-HRP, Pierce) was diluted to 10 μg/ml in PBST. 20 μl droplets were then incubated on test spots for 30 minutes at room temperature. Peroxidase labeled rabbit anti-sheep IgG (IgG-HRP) was used as a non-biotinylated control molecule. The IgG-HRP was diluted to 10 μg/ml in PBS (no Tween20), and 20 μl droplets were incubated on test spots for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Results are presented in FIG. 9. The streptavidin-biotin surface shows significantly higher signal for biotin-HRP (solid bars) than for the non-biotinylated IgG-HRP (open bars). Relative to the streptavidin surface, neither biotin-HRP nor IgG-HRP show significant binding to the no-streptavidin control. The slightly higher signal for the IgG-HRP on the no-streptavidin surface can be attributed to the different incubation buffers. In the absence of Tween20 in the buffer, the IgG-HRP shows slightly higher non-specific binding.

This data supports a conclusion that biotinylated molecules specifically bind to streptavidin-biotin surfaces of the present invention, and conversely, that non-specific binding proteins show limited binding to these same coated surfaces. This Example again highlights the utility of the present invention.

EXAMPLE IX Demonstration of Thiolated Protein Attachment to Thiol-Reactive Coatings on Polymer Substrates

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for selectively attaching a thiolated protein on a thiol-reactive coating chemistry on a plastic substrate. Results are compared to binding of the thiolated protein to an inert control surface chemistry on a plastic substrate.

Coating Preparation. The coating solution was prepared as described in Example I, with the exception that the Biotin-PEG-NHS was replaced with vinylsulfone-PEG-NHS (Shearwater). Spin coating on tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) was performed as described in Example III.

The coated wafer was then placed in a vacuum oven and was subsequently pumped down to a vacuum of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 70° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was four hours. The substrates were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the surfaces by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface.

Inert Coating Preparation. The inert control surfaces were prepared exactly as described in Example VII.

The specific binding assays were performed at room temperature as follows: Surfaces were first triple-rinsed with ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and then blown dry with N₂ gas. Each test spot was then incubated with a 20 μl droplet of thiolated streptavidin in borate buffer (50 mM borate, 1 mM EDTA, pH 9.0, 0.01% Tween20). Incubation was at room temperature for 30 minutes. Note that no blocking step was used. After incubation, surfaces were triple-rinsed with PBST (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2, 0.01% Tween20) and blown dry. Test spots were incubated with a 1:100 dilution of biotin horseradish peroxidase (Pierce) for 30 minutes, rinsed with PBST, and then blown dry. Test spots were then incubated with a 20 μl droplet of TMB substrate. The enzyme catalyzed calorimetric TMB reaction was allowed to proceed for 5 minutes at which point it was stopped by applying a 20 μl droplet of stop solution. Optical density at 450 nm was read using a standard plate reader.

Binding Results: Specific binding results for the coated tissue culture polystyrene substrate are presented in FIG. 10 (note that each concentration was run in triplicate and error bars represent one standard deviation in the set). Binding of thiolated streptavidin to thiol-reactive coatings has been demonstrated (open bars). The dose response on the thiol-reactive coatings scales with concentration of thiolated streptavidin. Peroxidase activity on the inert surface is minimal (solid bars). The lack of non-specific binding on the inert surfaces provides solid evidence of covalent attachment of streptavidin to the thiol-reactive coatings.

EXAMPLE X Demonstration of Protein Attachment to Amine-Reactive Coatings on Glass Microscope Slides

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for selectively attaching an amine-containing protein to the amine-reactive coating chemistry, compared to a deactivated control surface, on glass microscope slides.

Coating Preparation. The coating solution was prepared as described in Example I, with the exception that the Biotin-PEG-NHS was replaced with a 80 mg aliquot of SPA-PEG-SPA (Shearwater) where SPA is a succinimidyl derivative of propionic acid that exhibits reactivity towards amine groups. Glass substrates in a 25×75 mm microscope slide format were primed with an approximate 400 angstrom RF sputtered silicon oxide layer and then cleaned by the following protocol. The slides were first rinsed with high purity (18 MW-cm) water to remove gross impurities. They were then loaded in a glass staining rack, submerged in an outgassed solution of 1% Alconox solution heated to 60° C. (alkaline glass cleaner) and sonicated for 15 minutes. The slides were then rinsed with copious amounts of high purity water and then sonicated in high purity water heated to 60° C. for another 15 minutes. The slides were then rinsed with copious amounts of high purity water and then placed in fresh high purity water until the drying step. Slides were exhaustively blown dry with compressed N₂ gas and were stored dry until use. The cleaned and primed slides were mounted in the spin coater and spun at 3500 rpm. 0.5 ml of the coating solution was dispensed onto the primed glass slide and spun for 90 seconds.

The coated 25×75 mm glass slide was then placed in a vacuum oven and was subsequently pumped down to a vacuum of 150 mm Hg (absolute) for 30 minutes. The oven was then turned on and allowed to heat to approximately 70° C. The total thermal treatment (heating ramp and hold) was 1 hour. The substrates were then allowed to cool to room temperature in ambient air. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the surfaces by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface.

Specific Binding Assay: The specific binding assays were performed at room temperature as follows. Surfaces were first triple-rinsed with ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and then blown dry with N₂ gas. An inert control surface was generated by chemically deactivating an amine-reactive coating using a 50 mM ethanolamine in a 50 mM borate buffer, pH 9.0 for 1 hour. Each test spot was then incubated with a 20 μl droplet of streptavidin in 50 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7.0. Incubation was at room temperature for 60 minutes. No blocking step was used. After incubation, surfaces were triple-rinsed with PBST (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2, 0.01% Tween20) and blown dry. Test spots were incubated with a 1:100 dilution of biotin horseradish peroxidase (Pierce) for 30 minutes, rinsed with PBS (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2), and then blown dry. Test spots were then incubated with a 20 μl droplet of TMB substrate. The enzyme catalyzed colorimetric TMB reaction was allowed to proceed for 5 minutes at which point it was stopped by applying a 20 μl droplet of stop solution. Optical density at 450 nm was read using a standard plate reader.

Binding Results: Specific binding results for the amine-reactive coating are presented in FIG. 11. Streptavidin immobilization to the amine-reactive coatings has been demonstrated (open bars). The dose response on the amine-reactive coatings scales with concentration of streptavidin. Peroxidase activity on the deactivated surface is minimal (solid bars). The lack of non-specific binding on the deactivated coatings provides solid evidence for the covalent attachment of streptavidin to the amine-reactive coatings.

EXAMPLE XI Demonstration of Selective Binding of Biotinylated Antibody to Streptavidin Coated Surfaces

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for demonstrating the selective binding of a biotinylated antibody to a coated surface of the present invention.

Surface Fabrication. Glass microscope slides with amine reactive surface chemistries were prepared as described in Example X. Six-millimeter diameter sample spots were defined on the wafer by stamping a silicone adhesive border pattern onto the surface. Streptavidin was covalently attached through its surface amine using the following procedure. Streptavidin (Prozyme, Inc.) was diluted to 100 μg/ml in phosphate buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.0). 40 μl droplets of this solution were then incubated in sample spots for one hour at room temperate. The slides were then rinsed and the submerged in a deactivation solution consisting of 50 mM ethanolamine in 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7. The deactivation was allowed to proceed for 1 hour, at which point the slides were removed from the solution, rinsed with water and dried.

Assay. A biotinylated goat antibody (goat anti-mouse IgG, biotin-labeled, Pierce) was used as the positive sample. The control was a non-biotinylated goat antibody (goat anti-human myoglobin, ICN). Both antibodies were diluted to 100 μg/ml in phosphate buffered saline containing 0.005% Tween20 (PBST). 20 μl droplets of each antibody solution were incubated in sample spots for 30 minutes at room temperate. Several control spots were incubated with PBST only (no antibody). Slides were then rinse three times with PBST, one time with ultrapure water, and then dried. Goat antibody immobilized on the surface was assessed using immunochemistry. Specifically, 20 μl droplets of a peroxidase labeled anti-goat antibody (rabbit anti-goat IgG-HRP, KPL Inc., 1:100 dilution in PBST) were incubated on all test spots for 30 minutes at room temperature. The slides were then rinsed as above and incubated with 20 μl droplets of peroxidase substrate (TMB, KPL Inc.) for 5 minutes, at which point the calorimetric reaction was stopped with a TMB stop solution. Droplets were transferred to a 96-well microtitre plate and optical density at 450 nm was measured using a plate reader (Opsys M R, Thermo Labsystems).

Binding Results: Results are presented in FIG. 12. The data illustrates that in the absence of the first layer capture antibody (capture antibody concentration=0), the non-specific binding of the detection antibody (anti-goat, HRP) is very low (open bars). On surfaces incubated with the goat antibodies, results show that only the biotinylated antibody gives significant signal (solid bars). These results demonstrate that the surface embodiments of the present invention are selective for biotinylated antibody.

EXAMPLE XII Demonstration of Improved Immunoassay Performance on Coated Surfaces

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention by comparing the assay performance and detection limits of the coating chemistries of the present invention relative to a standard diagnostic assay. The comparison is based on sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).

SEB Sandwich Assay Protocol for Coated Substrates. The substrates for this assay consisted of SiO₂/Si wafers coated with biotinylated, low-NSB surface coating as described in Example I. Streptavidin was bound to the surface by incubating 25 mg/ml (streptavidin in PBST) droplets (20 μl) at each 6 mm test spot. Incubation was for 30 minutes at 37° C. Each test piece was then triple-rinsed with high purity (18 MΩ-cm) water and blown dry with N₂ gas. Capture antibody was bound to each test spot by incubating with 20 μl droplets of biotin anti-SEB (Toxin Technologies). Incubation was performed for 30 minutes at 37° C. followed by a triple rinse in high purity water and the N₂ gas drying step. Test spots were then incubated with 20 μl droplets of the SEB antigen solution in concentrations ranging from 0.01 ng/ml to 1.0 ng/ml. Incubation was again performed for 30 minutes at 37° C. Test pieces were then triple rinsed with high purity water and blown dry. Detection antibody (anti SEB-HRP in PBST, 20 μl droplets, Toxin Technologies) was then incubated for 30 minutes at 37° C., followed by a triple rinsing with high purity water and blow dry. The final incubation was with a commercial, precipitate TMB assay. TMB-Membrane substrate (KPL, Inc.) was added in 20 μl droplets to each of the test spots and incubated for 30 minutes at 37° C. As described previously, HRP catalyzes the formation of an insoluble deposit on the surface. After blowing the test piece dry with N₂, the thickness of the deposited layer was quantified using a custom-built ellipsometer, providing an indirect, quantitative measurement of antigen at the surface.

SEB Sandwich ELISA Protocol. A standard ELISA format assay was performed for comparison to the SEB sandwich assay for coated surfaces discussed above. Briefly, 100 μl of capture antibody (biotin anti-SEB, Toxin Technology) in PBS-Tween (0.01%) was added to the wells of a 96-well microtiter plate (Dynex Technologies, Immulon 2HB) and was incubated for 120 minutes at 37° C. The wells were then triple rinsed with PBS solution, tapping fluid from the plate after each rinse. The wells were then blocked with bovine serum albumin (BSA) by adding 200 μl of 1% BSA in PBST and then incubating at 37° C. for 1 hour. SEB antigen solutions (Toxin Technology, 100 μl volumes with concentrations ranging from 0.01 ng/ml to 1.0 ng/ml in PBST) were added to the microwells and incubated at 37° for 60 minutes. The wells were then rinsed with PBST and fluid was tapped from the inverted plate. The detection antibody was a horseradish peroxidase conjugated anti-SEB (Toxin Technology). 100 ml volumes were incubated in each of the wells for 60 minutes at 37° C. Again, the wells were washed with PBST. Color was developed in the well by adding a commercial TMB peroxidase substrate (TMB-Microwell, KPL, Inc.). 100 μl volumes of the developer were added to the wells and were incubated for 60 minutes at 37° C. After 60 minutes, 100 ml of the TMB stop solution was added to each well, and the optical density at 450 nm was read using a microplate reader.

Binding Results. Representative assay results are presented in FIG. 13( a), results of the standard microtiter plate ELISA assay, and FIG. 13( b), results for the ELISA assay performed on the functional coated surface of this invention. The important observation is that the coated surface, which presents specifically bound streptavidin for the sandwich assay, enables an order of magnitude improvement in assay sensitivity relative to a traditional sandwich ELISA. Specifically, the lower detection limit in the microtiter plate ELISA was approximately 1.0 ng/ml SEB. On the coated surface of the present invention, the lower detection limit was 0.1 ng/ml SEB.

EXAMPLE XIII Surface Chemistry Comparison in Oligonucleotide Microarray Format

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention as coating chemistries for use in oligonucleotide microassay formats. The experiments described in this example evaluate one coating chemistry embodiment of the present invention in parallel with current “state-of-the-art” commercial polymer and silane chemistries. In particular, the signal, noise and signal-to-noise levels are compared for the chemistries in a microarray format using amine labeled oligonucleotides.

Coating Preparation: The coating chemistry was prepared exactly as described in Example X The current state of the art commercial polymer chemistry is advertised as a three dimensional polymer coating on a glass slide substrate with a high loading capacity for amine labeled oligonucleotide. The commercial silane chemistry is advertised as a low background silane coating on a glass slide substrate. The commercial chemistries were processed according to the manufacturer suggested protocols, which are known and uniform for these types of substrates (two such commercial products include: Motorola Code-Link for the commercial polymer coating and Corning GAPS-II for the commercial silane chemistry).

Microarray Printing: 5′ amine-linked and 3′ biotin-labeled oligonucleotide (Operon) was suspended in 300 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 8.5 at a concentration of 20 μM. The coating chemistry was first triple-rinsed with ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and then blown dry with N₂ gas prior to arraying. Commercial chemistries were used out of the box. An array of spots was printed on the chemistries using a SpotBot microarrayer (Telechem) fitted with SMP3B pins (Telechem). Commercial polymer and coating chemistries were incubated at 75% relative humidity for 5 hours. The polymer, silane and coating chemistries were stored desiccated at room temperature for 72 hours prior to use. The coating chemistry was deactivated with 50 mM ethanolamine in phosphate buffer pH 7.0 for 1 hour.

Specific Binding Assay: The commercial polymer chemistry was deactivated with a 50 mM ethanolamine in 0.1M Tris, pH 9.0, 1% SDS solution at 50° C. for 20 minutes. The commercial silane chemistry was baked at 80° C. for 2 hours then blocked with bovine serum albumin for 1 hour. The specific binding assays were performed at room temperature as follows: chemistries were incubated with 140 μl of 10 μ/g/ml of Cy5 labeled streptavidin (Amersham) in PBST (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2, 0.01% Tween20). 40 mm Lifter Slips (Erie) were utilized to spread liquid evenly over surface of slide chemistries. Chemistries were placed in hybridization chamber for 30 minutes. Lifter Slips were removed from slide chemistries and slides were triple-rinsed with PBST then ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and dried. Slide chemistries were placed in GenePix 4000B scanner (Axon) and settings were optimized for the commercial polymer slide chemistry. Final scanner settings were 100% laser power and 500 volt setting on the photo multiplier tube.

Binding Results: Specific binding results for the coating chemistry and commercial chemistries are presented in FIG. 14( a). Signal intensities are reported in relative fluorescence units. FIG. 14( a) shows that the coating chemistry (open bar) has higher signal intensity than both the polymer (cross-hatched bar) and silane (solid bar) chemistries in this experiment. The background was monitored in the Cy5 channel. Noise levels are reported in relative fluorescence units. Representative non-spotted areas of the scanned image were used to calculate global background values. The Cy5 channel signal provides a measurement of the non-specific binding contribution to background signal. FIG. 14( b) shows the coating chemistry (open bar) has significantly lower Cy5 background compared to polymer (cross-hatched bar) and silane (solid bar) chemistries. The coating chemistry has lower background signal due to low surface non-specific binding of the Cy5 streptavidin.

Resulting signal-to-noise ratios in the Cy5 channel were calculated for the slide chemistries and are shown in FIG. 14( c). The coating chemistry (open bar) shows approximately 3× higher signal-to-noise ratio than the commercial polymer chemistry (cross-hatched bar) and a 6× improvement in signal-to-noise over the commercial silane chemistry (solid bar).

EXAMPLE XIV Demonstration of Antibody-Antibody Interaction in a Protein Microarray

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for demonstrating the fabrication of an array of biotinylated antibodies on a coated surface of the present invention, and their subsequent detection using antibody-antibody recognition.

Surface Fabrication. Glass microscope slides with amine reactive surface chemistries were prepared as described in Example X. Streptavidin was covalently attached to the surface using the following procedure. First, an adhesive hybridization chamber (Schleicher and Schuell) was placed on the glass substrate. Streptavidin (Prozyme, Inc.) was diluted to 100 μg/ml in phosphate buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.0), and approximately 700 μl was added to the hybridization chamber, where the reaction was allowed to proceed for 1 hour. The chamber was then removed, and slides were rinsed and then submerged in a deactivation solution consisting of 50 mM ethanolamine in 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7. The deactivation was allowed to proceed for 1 hour, at which point the slides were removed from the solution, rinsed with water and dried.

Microarray Printing: Lyophilized biotinylated goat antibody (goat anti-mouse IgG, biotin-labeled, Pierce) was reconstituted to 1 mg/ml in phosphate buffered saline with 15 mg/ml bovine serum albumin (reconstitution buffer as supplied by Pierce). This stock was then diluted to 100 μg/ml antibody in phosphate buffered saline with varying amounts of Tween20® surfactant. A 384-well source plate was prepared with 20 μl droplets of the antibody solution, with wells dedicated to 0, 0.0001, 0.0005, 0.001, and 0.005, 0.01, 0.05 vol % Tween20®. The coating chemistry was first triple-rinsed with ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and then blown dry with N₂ gas prior to arraying. An array of spots was printed on the chemistries using a SpotBot microarrayer (Telechem) fitted with SMP3B pins (Telechem). Spotted slides were incubated at 75% relative humidity for 1.5 hours.

Specific Binding Assay: The specific binding assays were performed at room temperature as follows: chemistries were incubated with 700 μl of 10 μg/ml of Cy3 labeled rabbit anti-goat IgG (Sigma) in PBS (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2), using an adhesive hybridization chamber (described above). Slides were incubated for 30 minutes. The hybridization chamber was then removed and slides were triple-rinsed with PBST (0.1 M sodium phosphate, 0.15 M sodium chloride, pH 7.2, 0.05% Tween20®) then ultrapure (18 MΩ-cm) H₂O and dried. Slide chemistries were placed in a GenePix 4000B scanner (Axon) and settings were optimized for the best signal to noise performance. Final scanner settings were 100% laser power and 460 volt setting on the photo multiplier tube.

Binding Results: A representative array image is presented in FIG. 15. All spots in the image are printed with the same antibody concentration, 100 μg/ml. Each row has a different Tween20® concentration in the buffer, with Tween20® concentration increasing from 0 in the top row to 0.05% in the bottom row. Five duplicate spots are printed in each row. The first observation is that the arrayed antibodies are recognized by the fluorescently labeled detection antibody, demonstrating the surface immobilization of the printed antibody. The addition of Tween20® to the print buffer increases both the size and intensity of the printed spots. Spots in the bottom row have specific binding signal of approximately 9000 relative fluorescence units (RFUs), while the local background is roughly 1000 RFUs.

EXAMPLE XV Demonstration of Synergistic Effect of Coating Components for Improving Non-Specific Binding Properties of Coated Substrates

The following example was designed to show that the combination of components embodied in the present invention provide performance superior to coatings comprised of subsets of these components.

The components in the “standard formula” coating solution can be abbreviated as follows:

-   Biotin-PEG Biotin-PEG-CO₂—N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester (Shearwater     Corp.) -   Aminosilane (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-diethylenetriamine (Gelest) -   Azidosilane 6-azidosulfonylhexyl-triethoxysilane (Gelest) -   PST polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate (Aldrich)

For this experiment, coating solutions were prepared in the standard formula (as described in Example I), as well as in various subtractions and combinations of these components. In all cases, the volume and ratio of carrier solvents (1:4 DMAC:DMSO) was held constant.

Glass microscope slides were coated as described in Example V.

The surfaces were then assayed for non-specific binding using the procedure described in Example II.

Binding Results: Results are presented in FIG. 16. Results show that the standard formulation provides the best NSB performance relative to all other component combinations, with the exception of the “no azidosilane” formulation, which shows equivalent NSB in this assay. Subsequent experiments have shown that the “no azidosilane” formulation has inferior shelf life relative to the standard formulation. Specifically, once the surface is exposed to water rinse, the low NSB properties of the “no azidosilane” degrade much more rapidly than the standard formulation (days versus weeks or months). This is consistent with the concept that the azidosilane provides some cross-linking/stabilizing role in the surface coating.

The data from this example shows that embodiments of the present invention operate at optimal performance when all the components of the surface coating are present.

EXAMPLE XVI Demonstration of Additional Matrix Forming Components in the Coating Formulation

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention utilizing alternative matrix-forming molecules, as compared to polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate (PST). The experiments described here demonstrate other embodiments of the invention, in which alternative matrix-forming molecules provide good non-specific binding and specific binding performance.

Coating solutions were prepared as described in Example II. In addition, coating solutions were also prepared in which the PST was replaced with commercial surfactants, namely Triton X-100 and Tween20. As a control, the matrix-forming component was replaced with glycerol in the formulation. Note that glycerol is not expected to show equivalent matrix-forming ability.

Coating solutions were cast on silicon wafers and cured as described in Example II. The non-specific binding assay was performed as described in Example II. The specific binding assay was performed as described in Example IX.

Binding Results: Results are presented in FIG. 17. FIG. 17( a) shows that all three matrix-forming components outperform BSA-blocking in the NSB experiment. Of the three tested, the PST gives the best performance, followed by Tween20 and Triton X-100. As expected, coatings made with the glycerol substitute had very high NSB.

FIG. 17( b) shows that specific binding performance is similar for all three matrix-forming components. Although the glycerol also gives high signal, this is most likely the result of non-specific, rather than specific binding, as suggested by the NSB experiment.

EXAMPLE XVII Inhibition of Cell Proliferation on Coated Surfaces

The following example illustrates the inhibition of mammalian cell proliferation from culture on one embodiment of the present invention. Coatings were prepared on tissue culture polystyrene substrates in the manner described in Example III.

Cell Culture: Routine cell culture methods using sterile technique and commercial cell culture media and cell lines were employed. Two cell lines were employed (L929 fibroblasts, ATCC, and human umbilical venous endothelial cells, HUVECs, BioWhittaker). Cell culture media for L929 culture, changed every three days, comprised commercial 10% fetal bovine serum in DMEM saline with antibiotic supplements. The control surface was a sterile uncoated tissue culture polystyrene petri dish (BD-Falcon) with cells subject to identical conditions. Cultured stock cells trypsinized from commercial culture ware after reaching confluent phase were plated at a density of 10⁵ per dish and incubated in a commercial cell incubator under 5% CO₂ at 37° C.

Results: FIG. 18 provides microscope images of the L929 fibroblast cell culture surfaces after three days of growth. The coated surface (FIG. 18( a)) shows few cells relative to the TCPS control (FIG. 18( b)), which shows adherent cell monolayer coverage typical of culture for these cells. The cells that are present on the coated surface appear rounded, in loosely bound clusters, clearly avoiding surface contact and unable to generate confluent cell monolayers or consistent cell attachment. Their rounded shape indicates a stressed condition for these attachment-dependent cells. The control surface shows spread, adherent cells typically observed for these cultures of viable cells. It is believed that the inhibition of extracellular matrix protein adhesion to the coated surface inhibits fibroblast proliferation. Bacterial adhesion and proliferation was also investigated in preliminary experiments. Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA01 (ATCC, Manassas, Va.) cultured in tryptic soy broth (TSB) per routine microbiological methods to a culture density of ˜10⁹ CFU/ml and inoculated onto coated polystyrene petri dishes in various dilutions from this stock using TSB. Bacteriological grade polystyrene (BD) was used a control surface. After 24-hour incubation in a culture incubator (37° C.) and rinsing with TSB, few adherent microbes were observed on the coated surface using phase contrast microscopy (40× magnification). By contrast, the control surface was colonized with adherent viable organisms to high density, not removable by media rinsing (data not shown).

EXAMPLE XVIII Hydroxyl Functional Coating on Glass Substrate

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for preparing a hydroxyl functional surface on a glass microscope slide. In this example the active component is conceptually the same as Active Component shown as Formula (C) illustrated in the Detailed Description above. The cross-linking component, matrix forming component and carrier solvents are the same as those used in Example I above.

Coating Preparation. The coating solution was prepared at room temperature (approx. 22° C.) by first mixing two components as follows. The first solution component was prepared by adding 133.6 mg of 4-arm polyethylene glycol NHS ester (Mol. Wt. 10k, SunBright PTE-100HS, NOF Corp.) to 1.952 mL N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC, Aldrich). This was vortexed at room temperature to dissolve the polymer. To the above, 32.4 μL of (3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)diethylenetriamine (aminosilane, Gelest, Inc. SIT8398.0) was added and vortexed. The mixture was gently shaken for 2 hours to allow the aminosilane to react with the NHS-PEG. The target product of this reaction is NHS₍₃₎-PEG-silane like Active Component of Formula (C) illustrated in the Detailed Description.

The second solution component was prepared as follows. Three reagents were added to 7.8 mL of anhydrous dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO, Aldrich): 17.2 μL of 6-azidosulfonylhexyltriethoxysilane (azidosilane, Gelest, Inc. SIA0780), 30.9 μL of polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate (PST, Aldrich) and 133.7 μL of 1M tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (Trizma Base, Sigma-Aldrich) in DMSO were mixed by vortex.

The two solution components were then combined and vortexed, and the combined solution was allowed to sit at room temperature overnight. The formulation was finally filtered with a Millex 0.2 μm syringe filter (SLFG025 NB).

Spin Coating and Cure. Borosilicate glass slides were prepared as described in Example X. The spin coating procedure was as follows: slides were mounted on the vacuum chuck of a bench top spin coater (Laurell). A volume of approximately 0.35 ul of the coating solution was dispensed on the stationary slide using a pipetter. Spinning was initiated immediately and the slide was spun at 3500 rpm for 75 seconds. Coated slides were held in a stainless steel rack and were placed in a vacuum oven (Fisher Isotemp 282A) that had been pre-heated to 100° C. and purged with clean N₂ gas. Once the oven door was closed, the oven chamber was immediately pumped down to a vacuum of 0.1 inches Hg. The slides were cured at 100° C. for one hour at which point the oven chamber was purged with N₂ and the slide racks were removed.

Assessment of Coating Uniformity. Coating uniformity was assessed by illuminating the slide with 488 nm laser light at full power in a microarray scanner (Tecan LS400). The coating formulation has a small degree of intrinsic fluorescence when excited at this wavelength. The scanner creates a fluorescence image of the slide surface. FIG. 19( a) presents a fluorescence surface plot of a representative hydroxyl functional surface. At a resolution of 40 um per pixel, the surface shows outstanding uniformity both at local (<1 mm) and macroscopic (>1 mm) length scale.

Qualitative Assessment of Hydroxyl Density. Hydroxyl density in the film is assessed by reacting the entire slide surface with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC). This molecule is reactive toward amines but also provides a fluorescent label that can be used for qualitative comparison of different formulations. Coated slides were placed in a polypropylene pap jar and which was then filled with 1(w/v)% fluorescein isothiocyanate in DMAc containing 0.5×10⁻²(v/v)% triethylamine as a catalyst and allowed to incubate overnight. The slides were then removed from the jar, washed with DMSO twice, ethanol twice, water once, and then centrifuged dry. The slides were then scanned on the Tecan scanner at with a 488 nm laser excitation. Data are presented in FIG. 19( b). The FITC staining signal is strong relative to a bare glass, which typically gives a staining signal <1000 RFU in this assay (data not shown).

EXAMPLE XIX Hydroxyl Functional Coating on Glass Substrate Prepared by Converting an Amine-Reactive Surface with a Modifying Agent

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for preparing a hydroxyl functional surface on a glass microscope slide. In this example an amine-reactive surface like that described in Example X is converted to a hydroxyl functional surface by reacting the surface with a modifying agent comprising a hydroxyl group. Amine-Reactive Surface Preparation. Amine-reactive coated slides comprising NHS groups were prepared as described in Example X with the following difference: the vacuum cure was performed at constant temperature of 100° C. rather than a ramp to 70° C. The amine-reactive slides were rinsed with ultrapure water and dried in a centrifuge at 950 rpm prior to use.

Conversion to a Hydroxyl Functional Surface. Ethanolamine (H₂NCH₂CH₂OH, Aldrich) was selected as the modifying agent. The amine terminus of the ethanolamine molecule will covalently react with NHS groups in the coating matrix. As a result of this reaction, the NHS groups on the end of each PEG spacer are replaced with a —CH₂CH₂OH terminus. We note that hydrolysis of the NHS esters is a competing reaction in aqueuous solution, so a fraction of the NHS groups will be converted to carboxylates instead of the desired hydroxyls. To perform the conversion, amine-reactive slides were placed in a polypropylene slide rack and were immersed in a solution 50 mM ethanolamine in phosphate buffered saline adjusted to pH 9. The reaction was allowed to proceed for one hour at room temperature. The slide rack was then removed, rinsed extensively with water and then centrifuged dry at 950 rpm.

EXAMPLE XX Hydroxyl Functional Coating on Glass Substrate Prepared with Hydroxyl PEG

The following example illustrates the utility of an embodiment of the present invention for preparing a hydroxyl functional surface on a glass microscope slide. This example is conceptually similar to that described in Example XVIII, but an alternative approach is used to form the active component.

Coating Preparation. All of the following mixing and reaction steps are performed at room temperature. In 1 mL of anhydrous N,N dimethylacetamide (DMAC, Aldrich), 66.8 mg of 4-arm PEG-OH (Mol. Weight 10,000, SunBright PTE 10000, NOF Corp.) was dissolved and then 0.33 μL (3.3 μL of 10% v/v in DMAc) of 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane (SII6455.0, Gelest, Inc.) and 3.38 μL of 1,4-diisocyanatobutane (Sigma-Aldrich) were added and mixed by vortexing. To this solution, 10 μL of 10% v/v triethylamine was added and stirred gently for 2 h.

In this reaction scheme, the isocyanate groups on the 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane and the 1,4-diisocyanatobutane react with a fraction of terminal hydroxyls on the PEG-OH. This hydroxyl-isocyanate reaction is catalyzed by the triethylamine. In the context of the invention definitions, this reaction scheme forms an active component like the molecular structure shown as Active Component shown by Formula (C) above. The 1,4-diisocyanatobutane serves as the cross-linking component in this formulation.

In a separate container, 15.9 μL of PST is dissolved into 4 mL of DMSO with stirring, was added and stirred. This was then added to the PEG/DMAC mixture described in the prvious paragraph, and filtered as in Example XVII.

Spin-Coating, Cure, and Hydroxyl Assessment. After formulation, the spin coating and cure procedure was as described in Example XVIII. Qualitative assessment of hydroxyl density was also performed as described in Example XVIII. Hydroxyl density results for this formulation are presented in FIG. 19( b).

It will be clear that the invention is well adapted to attain the ends and advantages mentioned as well as those inherent therein. While a presently preferred embodiment has been described for purposes of this disclosure, various changes and modifications may be made which are well within the scope of the invention. Numerous other changes may be made which will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art and which are encompassed in the spirit of the invention disclosed herein and as defined in the appended claims.

All publications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference. 

1. A method of preparing a functional surface, said method comprising: providing a substrate; providing an effective amount of active component comprising a functional group, spacer group, and a binding group, wherein said functional group comprises one or more terminal hydroxyl groups; providing an effective amount of cross-linking component; providing an effective amount of matrix-forming component; and affixing said active component, said cross-linking component and said matrix-forming component onto said substrate, thereby forming a hydroxyl functional surface.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said hydroxyl functional surface is affixed to said substrate to provide a coated substrate, and wherein said coated substrate is cured.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein said curing is thermal activation.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said spacer group is a hydrophilic polymer.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said spacer group comprises polyethylene glycol.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said spacer group comprises linear, star-shape, multi-arm, or comb-like polyethylene glycol.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said binding group is an alkoxysilane.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said cross-linking component is an organosilane.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein said cross-linking component is an azidosilane.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein said matrix-forming component is a polyoxyethylene-based surface-active substance.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein said matrix-forming component is surface-active substance comprising polyoxyethylene sorbitan.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein said matrix-forming component is surface-active substance comprising polyoxyethylene sorbitan tetraoleate.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein said active component comprises one or more terminal hydroxyl groups, a polyethylene glycol, and a silane.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein said substrate is a solid surface.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein said substrate is composed of glass, inorganic oxide, plastic, semiconductors, or metals.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein said substrate is composed of glass. 